Tech company Yandex and automotive components manufacturer Hyundai Mobis have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop control systems for Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous vehicles, by combining Yandex’s self-driving technologies with Hyundai Mobis’ experience in the automotive industry.

The agreement also provides the potential for the companies to expand into other areas of cooperation such as developing joint products that are equipped with Yandex technologies including speech, navigation, and mapping to name a few.

 “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,” says Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex.

“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.”

​During the first stage of the collaboration between Yandex and Hyundai Mobis, the companies will focus on developing a driverless prototype vehicle based on standard Hyundai or Kia production model cars.

In the future, Yandex and Hyundai Mobis plan on building a new autonomous driving control system as an out-of-the-box platform that can be used by car manufacturers, car sharing services and taxi fleets.