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Yandex robot drives 700 km without a driver
Yandex reports a 700-km driverless trip, 1,000 delivery robots and plans for 100 public robotaxis by year-end.
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Image source: Grok
Yandex’s second-quarter 2026 report highlights growth across three autonomous-transport programs: robot delivery, autonomous long-haul trucking, and robotaxis. The clearest milestone came on the Moscow–Saint Petersburg route, where a robot traveled 700 km without driver intervention.
Yandex’s robot-delivery fleet reaches 1,000 vehicles
Yandex said its robot-delivery fleet has grown to 1,000 vehicles. During the quarter, the robots completed approximately 260,000 orders from more than 140 dark stores.
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The service has expanded beyond Nizhny Novgorod into cities in the Moscow region. Yandex plans to launch robot delivery in Voronezh, Tyumen, and several other cities by the end of 2026. The report does not specify which additional cities will be included or provide a separate commercial rollout schedule for each location.
Robotaxis move from employee trips toward public service
Yandex also confirmed that its robotaxis are already transporting employees between company offices. That is still an internal-use deployment, but the company expects to put 100 robotaxis on city streets by the end of the year, allowing any user to request a ride.
This would mark a change from employee transport to an open service. Autonomous vehicles on public roads remain uncommon in Russia, and commercial deployments are still emerging from pilot programs. Robotaxis already operate in limited zones in the United States and China, but those launches also remain cautious and subject to restrictions, according to the report.
Yandex did not state the exact launch date, operating cities, service area, or pricing for the planned public robotaxi service. Its delivery program, however, already has a defined operating footprint and measurable quarterly volume.
Sergey Kuznetsov is editor-in-chief of itzine.ru and a technical journalist with 15 years of experience. He specializes in in-depth testing of audio equipment, photography gear, and consumer electronics. He has written more than 5,000 articles covering topics from gaming chairs and networking equipment to smartphone and wearable-device market analysis. At the publication, he oversees expert sections and editorial policy.
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via ITzine
