Yandex, the Russian tech giant, announced on Tuesday it has begun to test a new unmanned taxi service in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
The trial will entail 20 self-driving cars which will operate in the area of the Sirius urban settlement, one of the busiest districts in the city. The unmanned taxis will drive people between such locations as Sirius University, Sochi Park, the Delta and Gamma Sirius hotels, and Olympic Prospect.
The Yandex website had invited potential customers to take part in the testing. If they choose to sign up, their Yandex Go app would then offer them the option to call a robotaxi. The trips will not be entirely unmanned, however, as Russian law currently requires that an algorithm-piloted vehicle have a human present supervising its operation at all times.
Yandex predicts demand for the unmanned taxis in Sochi will increase in the near future due to the rapidly growing tourism industry in the city.
It is not Yandex’s first foray into the robotaxi sector, however. The company notes the new trials will expand on the company’s experience which it acquired while creating a self-driving taxi service in Innopolis, a campus town in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan. The settlement, which was constructed as an innovation hub, has seen its residents take more than 60,000 rides in the company’s unmanned vehicles.
In June the company also debuted a self-driving taxi service in Yasenevo, one of the largest districts in Moscow.
The company has priced all robotaxi trips at 100 rubles ($1), according to the company.