Russian tech giant Yandex announced it will enter the self-driving car market Tuesday with the unveiling of a video demonstration its driverless prototype.
The project is being developed in the Yandex.Taxi department of the company, an on-demand transportation service similar to Uber. The company aims to create a completely autonomous self-driving car corresponding to level 5 of the universally acknowledged classification for automated vehicles.
“Self-driving cars are set to revolutionalise the way we commute within a matter of a decade,” Dmitry Polishchuk, head of the self-driving project, said.
The demonstration video features a driverless car maneuvering obstacles, transporting passengers, and dodging a truck. The company said several previously developed Yandex technologies were used in the prototype, including mapping, real-time navigation, computer vision and object recognition.
The company expects to start tests on city roads in 2018.
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