Yandex , a technology company that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning, and Hyundai Mobis, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of automotive components, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU).

The companies plan to jointly develop control systems for Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous vehicles, combining Yandex’s established self-driving technologies with Hyundai Mobis’ extensive experience in the automotive industry.  The agreement also provides that the companies may expand into other areas of cooperation such as developing joint products that integrate Yandex technologies including speech, navigation, and mapping among others.

The first stage of this collaboration between Yandex and Hyundai Mobis is set to focus on developing a driverless prototype vehicle based on standard Hyundai or Kia production model cars.

In the future, the companies plan to build a new autonomous driving control system as an out-of-the-box solution intended for car manufacturers, car sharing services and taxi fleets.

“Our self-driving technologies are unique and have already proven their scalability. Yandex’s self-driving cars have been successfully driving on the streets of Moscow, Tel Aviv and Las Vegas, which means that the fleet can be expanded to drive anywhere. It took us just two years to go from the first basic tests to a full-fledged public robotaxi service. Now, thanks to our agreement with Hyundai Mobis, we will be able to move even faster,” says Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex.

Yandex first began testing self-driving prototypes in the Spring of 2017, by mid-2018 Yandex launched Europe’s first fully autonomous taxi service. The robotaxi service operates in Russia’s tech hubs of Innopolis and Skolkovo throughout winter weather conditions with just a safety engineer in the passenger seat.  Yandex has also expanded its self-driving internationally, with testing in Israel and demonstrations at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hyundai Mobis is one of the ten largest automotive component manufacturers in the world. The company focuses on new technologies and is developing its own driverless vehicle, M. BILLY. Hyundai Mobis is an affiliate of the Hyundai Motor Group, one of the world’s top five car manufacturers and the maker of Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis cars.