South Korea’s auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis unveiled its first driverless robotaxi in Russia in a joint development with Russian information technology company Yandex, it said Thursday. 

The two companies will test up to 100 robot taxis across the cities in Russia including Moscow by the year-end. The robotaxis were developed on the platform of Hyundai Motor’s eighth-generation Sonata that was launched earlier this year.

In March, Hyundai Mobis and Yandex signed a memorandum of understanding for co-developing a deep learning-based autonomous driving platform.

Yandex is one of Europe’s largest IT companies that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning. It currently occupies over 60 percent of Russia’s search engine market. 

Hyundai Mobis said the strategic partnership will establish a high quality mobility service for advancing into the global mobility market. It is the first time that the Korean firm has signed an MOU with a global IT company.

The auto parts maker said it will continue to reinforce global collaborative relationships to preemptively secure future vehicle technologies. 

According to it, the two companies were able to transform Sonata into a complete driverless robotaxi in just six weeks. 

Robotaxi is a self-driving or driverless cab that uses a level four autonomous vehicle platform, meaning that the it is able to receive a passenger’s call and pick up a customer for a ride-hailing service. It does not need human intervention to be sent to the pickup point.

Hyundai Mobis was in charge of attaching autonomous driving sensors and controllers to the platform to secure the safety of the system, while Yandex was responsible for applying an algorithm, the companies said in a statement. 

Starting with the test operation of robotaxis, Hyundai Mobis and Yandex said they anticipate to expand the scope of the mutual cooperation and launch the service in other countries. 

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)