Hyundai has announced a partnership with Avride, a Yandex spinoff, to jointly develop fully driverless cars for autonomous ridehailing. The collaboration will enable Avride to deploy 100 Hyundai Ioniq 5 SUVs retrofitted with autonomous driving technology this year, marking a significant milestone in the development of robotaxis.

Avride, which currently operates fleets of sidewalk delivery robots in several cities, aims to launch a commercial robotaxi service in the near future. The company has been using the Ioniq 5 and the Hyundai Sonata as its test vehicles in Austin and Seoul for the past year. With this partnership, Avride plans for a "significant expansion" of its fleet ahead of the launch of a commercial service.

The Ioniq 5 vehicles destined for Avride's fleet will be assembled at the new Hyundai Metaplant America factory in Georgia and then integrated with Avride's autonomous technology. The first vehicles will arrive in Dallas later this year, as part of Avride's deal with Uber to deploy autonomous vehicles exclusively on the ridehailing company's app.

In addition to the autonomous vehicles, Avride and Hyundai say they plan to explore other opportunities, such as delivery robots and other smart mobility applications. This partnership is a significant step forward for both companies, as they work together to shape the future of autonomous transportation.

It's worth noting that Avride spun out of Yandex, one of Russia's biggest tech companies. Yandex had been testing its vehicles in the US up until the Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which forced most Western businesses to cut ties with the company. Last year, Yandex rebranded as Avride after its parent company (now called Nebius) divested itself in a $5.2 billion sale of all of its Russian holdings and severed ties to its original country. Avride is now headquartered in Austin.

This won't be the Ioniq 5's first self-driving rodeo. Waymo recently announced plans to buy an unspecified number of Hyundai EVs for its robotaxi business. The vehicle also serves as a platform for Motional, which is Hyundai's robotaxi subsidiary. As the autonomous vehicle market continues to evolve, partnerships like this one between Hyundai and Avride will play a crucial role in shaping the future of transportation.

With the deployment of 100 robotaxis this year, Avride and Hyundai are taking a significant step towards making autonomous ridehailing a reality. As the industry continues to move forward, it will be interesting to see how this partnership and others like it will impact the future of transportation.