Russian Startup Backed By Sber Has Frozen The Project Of Unmanned Vehicles

2023 Author: Natalie MacDonald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 13:59

The management of the Russian company Cognitive Pilot, a joint venture of Sber and Cognitive Technologies, has decided to freeze the project of unmanned vehicles. The representative of the startup told Vedomosti about this.

• The main reason for the freezing of the project, according to a company representative, was the absence in Russia of laws regulating the movement of unmanned vehicles. In addition, the autonomy of the car significantly increases its cost - the corresponding system costs the company about 800 thousand rubles, which is comparable to the price of a budget foreign car.
• At the same time, Cognitive Pilot noted that they are not abandoning the project of unmanned vehicles completely and intend to continue research in this area. According to the co-founder and CEO of the company Olga Uskova, the company will shift its focus to the development of unmanned control systems for agricultural machinery and active safety systems for rail transport.

• Yandex, which also works with unmanned vehicles, told Avto.ru that they are focusing on creating a universal autonomous control system that can be used on public roads in different countries. They recalled that Russia is currently developing and agreeing on a law on experimental legal regimes (EPR). Pilot projects within the framework of EPR will allow collecting the necessary statistics and gaining experience in using the latest technologies in services. The company is confident that EPR will be an important step towards improving federal legislation.
• Yandex unmanned vehicles are currently being tested in Russia, Israel and the United States, where they have driven more than 9 million kilometers in total. Each of the test zones adds new scenarios for training and testing technology, the company noted.
• As for Sber, it will continue to develop drones by its Sberravtotech division. In December, the first unmanned vehicles from Sber Automotive Technologies entered the streets of Moscow for testing in a winter metropolis. By the end of the year, Sberavtotech promised to increase the number of its drones to ten and said that in 2021 their number will continue to grow. At the same time, drivers will be behind the wheel of drones, in accordance with the requirements of current legislation.

• Earlier, the Ministry of Transport noted that tests of highly automated vehicles are being carried out today as an experiment on the roads of 13 Russian regions. The department clarified that, together with other authorities, they introduced measures to the government to create a regulatory and technical base for the operation of drones.