Hyundai pairs up with Yandex spinoff Avride to develop robotaxis

Hyundai Motor Company and Avride have agreed to jointly develop autonomous vehicles in a tie up that will deepen the relationship between the two companies. The deal will focus on autonomous vehicle technology designed for robotaxis. The two companies will also look into other use cases for the technology, including autonomous delivery services using Avride’s sidewalk delivery robots. Under the partnership, Avride will expand its fleet of Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles, which will be assembled at the new Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America factory in Georgia and then integrated with the startup’s autonomous technology. These new vehicles will roll out later this year in Dallas as part of Avride’s robotaxi service that will only be accessed through the Uber app. The deal is one of several partnerships that Avride, the Austin-based autonomous vehicle startup that spun out of Yandex, has landed in the past year. It’s also the latest example of Hyundai branching out beyond its own in-house ... Read full article.