Russian tech company Yandex has officially announced it is pausing autonomous vehicle and pavement robot tests in the United States , the news was first reported by Automotive News. The company says it idles its fleet of robotaxes in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and provides a delivery service powered by six-wheel pavement robots with Grub hub.
“We hope to continue operations in the future,” a company spokesperson said of the shutdown decisions. The news comes with the continuation of sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The invasion of Ukraine sparked a fierce backlash among Western countries, prompting many to cut off their business relations with Russian companies.
Yandex started working on autonomous car technology in 2016, and a year later it conducted its first successful test on the snowy streets of Moscow. The company entered the international market at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in 2019, allowing people to drive in fully self-driving vehicles on public roads.
In 2020, Yandex launched a technology center in Ann Arbor and brought some of its autonomous vehicles for public road testing.
