Last year, Avride embarked on a challenging certification process in this country to expand its presence in the region. In the initial phase, 10 robots will begin operations in Tokyo, with plans to increase their numbers in the future.
Avride is actively advancing autonomous transportation technologies, including delivery robots and self-driving cars. The company is securing deals with major corporations. The year before last, an agreement was signed with Uber for the use of delivery robots and autonomous vehicles.
Uber Eats customers can receive orders delivered by Avride robots in downtown Austin, Dallas, and Jersey City. Moving forward, the companies plan to integrate Avride's self-driving cars into the Uber platform in Dallas.
Additionally, around 100 delivery robots from the company are operating at Ohio State University as part of a partnership with the food delivery platform Grubhub. Furthermore, Avride is already utilizing delivery robots for some operations in South Korea, where the company is also testing self-driving vehicles that currently operate with test drivers.
The transportation startup Avride was established based on Yandex technologies. It is one of four projects under the Dutch Nebius Group, which was formerly known as Yandex NV before the business split and was the parent company of the "Russian Yandex." In 2024, it sold its Russian assets for $5.2 billion to a consortium of investors.
Nebius Group is owned by Israeli businessman Arkady Volozh. In March of last year, the European Union lifted sanctions against him due to "changed behavior." Following the onset of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, he removed references to Russia from his biography and recalled that he hails from Kazakhstan.