Yandex.Taxi (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Яндекс.Такси) is an international company owned by Russian IT-giant

Yandex Yandex LLC (russian: link=no, Яндекс, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian multinational technology company providing Internet-related products and services, including an Internet search engine, information services, e-commerce, transportation, map ...

and that operates taxi aggregation and food tech businesses across

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, CIS, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The company is among the world's leading developers of

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technology. Yandex.Taxi was founded by

N.V., a Russian

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that operates a search engine, an Internet portal, and about 70 other online services in multiple countries. Sometimes described as the «Russian Google,

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Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...

and

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», Yandex has been listed on the NASDAQ since 2011. The company focuses on developing machine learning-based technologies. Yandex.Taxi is a separate, private limited liability company within Yandex Group, incorporated in the Netherlands as Yandex.Taxi B.V. The Yandex.Taxi ride-hailing services (called Yango in some countries) operates in more than 1,000 cities, including 300 large cities across Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia, Israel, Ivory Coast, Finland, Ghana, Romania, Norway, and Bolivia. In the latter seven countries, it operates under a brand called Yango. More than 700,000 drivers are connected to the network. The food-tech arm of the company includes food delivery service

Yandex.Eats Yandex Eats (russian: Яндекс Еда tr. Yandeks Eda; stylised as Yandex.Eda) is a Russian online food ordering and delivery platform launched by Yandex in 2018. Delivery is carried out by courier services partnered with Yandex. Customers ...

, the super-fast grocery delivery service Yandex.Lavka, and the meal-kit service Yandex.Chef, previously known as Partiya Edy (Russian: "Food Party"). As of 2019, the Yandex.Lavka food delivery service is available through the Yandex.Taxi app, and operates in Russia as well as Kazakhstan. In 2020, Yandex.Taxi was reportedly developing AI-infused proprietary hardware and software for its vehicles that monitors drivers’ attention levels, as well as a facial recognition system that determines the identity of the person behind the wheel. In April 2022, Yandex.Taxi was banned in Estonia due to the Russian government's requirement that it share users' personal data with the government. Estonia encouraged other EU countries to sanction the company as well.

History

Yandex.Taxi launched in Moscow, Russia in 2011. At the start of the project, it connected about 1,000 drivers from 11 taxi companies. The service was first introduced as a mobile app for Android and iOS, and the site was launched on 28 June 2012. In 2012, Yandex.Taxi started charging a commission on rides booked through its service.

Tigran Khudaverdyan Tigran Oganesovich Khudaverdyan (russian: Тигран Оганесович Худавердян, hy, Տիգրան Հովհաննեսի Խուդավերդյան, Tigran Hovhannesi Khudaverdyan; born 28 December 1981) is a Russian businessman, f ...

took charge of the service in 2014. He remained in charge when it spun off as a separate company in December 2015. In June 2017, Yandex.Taxi released a video demonstrating its driverless car technology. The prototype vehicle was a Toyota Prius hybrid hatchback equipped with an

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GTX graphics processor and a LiDAR optical distance sensor by Velodyne.

Businesses and operations merger with Uber

On 13 July 2017, Yandex.Taxi and

signed an agreement to merge their businesses and operations in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The merger completed in February 2018. Yandex invested $100 million and Uber invested $225 million in the new structure. The new company had an estimated valuation of $3.8 billion. According to estimates from different investment banks in December 2018, Yandex.Taxi's market value has increased, varying between from $4.4 billion and $6.2 billion. 59.3% of the consolidated company named MLU B.V. belongs to Yandex, and 36.6% belongs to Uber. The remaining 4.1% belongs to the employees. Tigran Khudaverdyan retained leadership of the consolidated company. On May 22, 2019, Yandex announced the appointment of Tigran Khudaverdyan to the newly created position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Yandex group with Daniil Shuleyko promoted to the position of chief executive officer of MLU B.V. Yandex

Food tech division

In December 2017, Yandex.Taxi purchased 100% shares of Foodfox, a food delivery service in Moscow. After the merge of Uber and Yandex.Taxi in March 2018, Uber Eats and Foodfox combined their services to become

. As of March 2019 the new company is represented in 24 cities throughout Russia, with more than 8000 restaurants on the platform. In December 2018 Yandex.Eats completed 1 million orders. In 2019, Yandex.Eats launched a super-fast food delivery services called Yandex.Lavka that delivers food to customers in under 15 minutes. The online service relies on small warehouses across Moscow and St. Petersburg stocked with about 2,000 items and uses bike couriers to deliver orders. As of 2019, the Yandex.Lavka food delivery service is available through the Yandex.Taxi app, and operates in Russia and Kazakhstan. In October 2018, Yandex.Taxi acquired another food tech company, a meal kit service called Partiya Edy ("Food Party"), now renamed as Yandex.Chef, which operates in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Self-Driving Car Yandex

Autonomous taxis

Yandex taxi and Yandex self-driving car during January 2021

Yandex has developed its

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autonomous driverless cars for use as taxis. The first model available to the public is a heavily modified

Toyota Prius The is a car built by Toyota which has a hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door sedan, it has been produced only as a five-door liftback since 2003. In 2007, ...

with three lidar units, six

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

units, and six cameras and a

GNSS A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pr ...

sensor for navigation, with

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CPUs and

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GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

s using a

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. In November 2017, Yandex released a video of its AV winter tests, in which the car drove successfully along snowy roads of Moscow. On 29 May 2018, free demo rides were offered to the public at Yet Another Conference. Yandex reported that 700 passengers were given rides through the 10 hours of the demo. In June 2018, a Yandex driverless car completed a long-distance test ride in fully autonomous mode, traveling 780 km in about 11 hours. Yandex's

robo-taxi A robotaxi, also known as robo-raxi, self-driving taxi or driverless taxi, is an autonomous car (SAE automation level 4 or 5) operated for a ridesharing company. Some studies have hypothesized that robotaxis operated in an autonomous mobility on ...

service was launched in trial mode in August 2018 in the university town of Innopolis in the

Republic of Tatarstan The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...

. Service was free during this trial, and a Yandex engineer occupied the front passenger seat as a safety observer while the driver's seat remained empty. In November 2018, it was reported that the company had given its 1000th self-driving passenger ride. In February 2020, it was reported that over 5,000 autonomous passenger rides were made in Innopolis. The Yandex driverless car was presented to the international public at the CES 2019 innovation conference in

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. At the end of 2018, Yandex obtained a license to use these vehicles on public roads in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, one of the few American states where driverless cars are allowed. Unlike other prototypes demonstrated at the exhibition, the cars were circulating the streets of the city without any human control. In January 2020 Yandex provided autonomous rides for CES guests for the second time. In December 2018, the company got a permission from the Israeli Transportation Ministry to test its driverless car on public roads without a human safety driver at the wheel. This makes Israel the third country where the company is testing its self-driving vehicle. In March 2019, Yandex and Hyundai signed an agreement to work on autonomous car systems. The aim was to develop a platform for autonomous vehicles for level 4 and level 5, the categories of

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

defined as requiring limited to no human intervention. In July 2019

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and Yandex presented the self-driving

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2020 as the first result of their collaboration. In October 2019 Yandex announced that its self-driving cars had passed 1 million miles in fully autonomous driving since it started testing the technology. In February 2020, Yandex doubled its mileage with 2 million miles passed. On October 22, 2019, the

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(MDOT) selected Yandex and four other providers of highly automated vehicles for the 2020 NAIAS Michigan Mobility Challenge. Ten Yandex self-driving sedans will provide public rides in downtown

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during the

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in June 2020. In November 2019, the company presented its autonomous

delivery robot Delivery robot on a sidewalk A delivery robot is an autonomous robot that provides " last mile" delivery services. An operator may monitor and take control of the robot remotely in certain situations that the robot cannot resolve by itself such as ...

Yandex.Rover, based on the same self-driving technology the company is using for its autonomous cars. As part of the initial testing phase, a fleet of Yandex.Rover is operating on the Yandex campus in Moscow, transporting small packages from one building to another. In December 2019 Yandex introduced two lidars that it designed in-house. One is a solid state lidar with a 120-degree field of vision and the second is a rotating one that provides a 360-degree view of its surroundings. The company claims that using its own lidars will help Yandex save up to 75% on the cost of sensors, which are currently one of the most expensive parts of an autonomous vehicle. Yandex's lidars are deployed in its test fleet in and around

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. In March 2020, Yandex announced plans to launch a worldwide fleet of robotaxis using its driverless car software within the next few years, with a licence to begin testing in the United States from June 2020.

Features

Technologies

To estimate a vehicle's arrival time and the price of a ride, Yandex.Taxi uses two technologies developed by parent company Yandex: Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Navigator. This technology calculates routes based on live and forecasted traffic conditions. The service can recommend a pick-up point near to a user's location. Moving across the street may save time and money on the ride, for example. Depending on the country, the price for a ride may be calculated with an automatic surcharge rate. This rate applies when the number of people in a certain area exceeds the number of available cars. Since April 2017, riders know the price of their ride in advance. The price doesn't change, even if the driver gets stuck in traffic jam or takes a detour. This feature is now available in almost every country where the service operates. In those countries where it isn't, the app calculates an estimated price that may differ from the final price.

Safety

Yandex.Taxi works with partners who are authorized to provide transportation services. Depending on a country's laws, these can be taxi companies, taxi stations, licensed carriers, individual entrepreneurs, or other legal entities who have appropriate permissions. The company engages drivers training to use the Taximeter mobile app and communicate properly with passengers. Those who successfully complete the training program get a higher rating, which is an advantage for receiving orders. In November 2018, Yandex.Taxi announced a speed control project that's currently implemented in

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. The system monitors a car's speed and sends warnings to drivers who exceed the speed limit. Following the launch of the system, speeding among Yandex drivers reportedly dropped 12-fold. Similar to

, Yandex uses telematic data to monitor drivers’ behavior on roads and may suspend drivers who display erratic or aggressive behavior. To ensure safety for passengers and drivers, Yandex.Taxi controls the amount of time drivers can spend working. After several hours of continuous work, they stop receiving orders until they have enough rest. The company is developing an attention control system to decrease the number of road accidents caused by human factors. The AI system looks at such factors as blinking and yawning to detect when a driver is tired or distracted. Yandex.Taxi is the only online car booking service with a system like this so far. In addition, Yandex is developing a

facial recognition system A facial recognition system is a technology capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and ...

to prevent fraud by detecting who is behind the wheel. Yandex uses a remote quality check (RQC) system to ensure its drivers' vehicles meet quality standards: these include damage-free exteriors, clean empty trunks, and available child safety seats (if the driver is authorized to accept ride requests with children). Drivers are regularly asked to take photos of their vehicles and upload them through the Yandex.Taxi app, after which the pictures are evaluated for quality standards and drivers are asked to resolve any issues before they can continue to accept rides.

Revenue and profitability

Yandex.Taxi turned profitable in fall 2018 and posted rapid revenue growth ahead of an anticipated

public offering A public offering is the offering of securities of a company or a similar corporation to the public. Generally, the securities are to be listed on a stock exchange. In most jurisdictions, a public offering requires the issuing company to publish a ...

. According to other reports, profitability was posted by the entire segment comprising Yandex's ride-hailing division and food tech businesses, including Yandex.Eats and the grocery delivery service Yandex.Lavka. Yandex.Taxi accounted for 20% of

revenues in Q1 2019, showing 145% revenue growth year-on-year. This has made it an outlier in terms of profitability among other ride-hailing services. For 2019,

posted revenues of nearly RUB 38 billion (around $520 million) from services related to its taxi segment, an increase of 97% from the previous year.

Concerns

Yandex and US sanctions

On 29 January 2018 the United States Treasury Department issued a report listing senior political figures and oligarchs in Russia who are reportedly closely linked to the Russian government and hold certain political power. Yandex founder Arkadiy Volozh was named along with 95 Russian businessmen. The list was revealed to have been copied from the list of Russians on the 2017 Forbes billionaires list. Arkadiy Volozh has not been included in any country's list of personal or business sanctions.

Permissions controversy

In 2018, Yandex.Taxi came under scrutiny in Lithuania and

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(where it operates as Yango) after Lithuanian authorities warned the app could be collecting users' personal data. Lithuanian authorities did not ultimately impose restrictions on the service, while the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority found that Yango's terms of service were essentially the same as

's. To clarify its data use procedure, Yandex.Taxi published a detailed explainer on the data that its app collects from users, along with instructions on how to turn individual permissions on and off.

Sharing user data with police

In February 2020, Russian news website ''Baza'' reported that Yandex.Taxi had disclosed the travel history of an investigative journalist to Moscow police without a court order. The company responded that it was legally compelled to hand over the data under Russia's “operative-search activities” law, which does not require a court decision to request ride histories.