Autonomous Autos – From Russia with love.

Deal with Hyundai Mobis is a big credibility boost for Yandex. 

• Yandex’s agreement with Hyundai Mobis is a big endorsement for Yandex’s autonomous driving solution.
• This deal provides both a route to market and a milestone in overcoming the concerns related to Yandex’s Russian heritage.
• Yandex has signed an MoU with Hyundai Mobis that envisages the two companies working together to bring Yandex’s self-driving technology to market using Hyundai Mobis’ parts.
• The aim is to provide an off the shelf solution that can be used by any vehicle manufacturer, but the first targets are obviously going to be Hyundai and Kai which are solid 2^nd tier OEMs.
• I have long viewed Yandex as the dark horse of autonomous driving as it is a solution that no one really considers, but was by far the best demonstration at CES.
• Aptiv which also had vehicles running with Lyft at CES had to have two safety drivers in the vehicle and riders reported constant disengagements where the safety driver took over.
• By contrast, Yandex had no one in the driver’s seat and was on live roads with real vehicles although the route was limited to the areas that had been extensively mapped over the previous two weeks.
• Under live conditions, Yandex performed extremely well with no disengagements and very realistic driving from the autonomous system.
• Consequently, I think that Yandex is a credible player in autonomous driving, but it is impossible to say just how credible without some data which Yandex has not yet made public.
• However, I am sure that Hyundai Mobis has seen the data and is obviously comfortable that the Yandex offering is viable as Hyundai Mobis would have a lot of options to choose from.
• One of the key issues with autonomous driving is that just using deep learning is highly problematic.
• RFM research has found that these systems work optimally when the environment is both stable and finite.
• A live road environment is anything but finite or stable which is why I think many players have really struggled.
• Even Waymo has not been without problems as its vehicles which behave perfectly in Silicon Valley were observed having real problems in Arizona (see here).
• Waymo’s issues in Arizona are anecdotal and do not represent hard data, but it is worth noting that Yandex is training in both Moscow and Tel-Aviv and managed to get up and running in Las Vegas reasonably quickly.
• This would imply that it has found a way to start dealing with the infinite and unstable data problem, again placing it ahead of many of its peers.
• In addition to the credibility boost afforded by the deal with Hyundai Mobis, this brings Yandex into contention with the leaders in the field.
• Hence, I think that those shopping around for a decent offering (Uber and Apple are in dire need (see here)), may now be more willing to look past Yandex’s Russian roots.
• Yandex autonomous driving has arrived.