According to online sources, the Yandex.Taxi company intends to create a separate enterprise, Yandex.SDK, which will focus on the development of autonomous vehicles. The company also intends to attract a partner in the face of Uber to the new venture, thanks to which Yandex.Taxi will be able to increase its own profitability before the planned IPO.
The decision to create a separate division for the development of unmanned vehicles was made at an extraordinary general meeting of the company's participants, which took place a few days ago. The American company Uber will become a partner of Yandex.Taxi in the new venture.
Recall that Yandex.Taxi launched the first autonomous vehicles in May 2017. Since 2018, the company's unmanned vehicles have traveled over 1 million km on the roads of Russia, the USA and Israel. The company currently operates 65 autonomous vehicles based on the Toyota Prius. The division's financial performance was not disclosed, but by the end of 2019, the company intends to expand its fleet of unmanned vehicles to 100 units.
A few days ago, it became known that Yandex.Taxi was negotiating with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to organize its own IPO. Yandex.Taxi is reportedly valued at between $5 billion and $8 billion. According to analysts, by 2030, Yandex's self-driving car division will be valued at between $2,6 billion and $6,4 billion. Analysts at Bank of America previously noted that the autonomous vehicle division would benefit from developing as a private entity in light of the planned IPO.
Source: 3dnews.ru