Yandex.Rover delivers its first Beru marketplace packages on a snowy day
At Yandex Self-Driving, we are committed to innovating and improving mobility. Aside from our fleet of autonomous vehicles, one way we are doing this is through the development of Yandex.Rover, our delivery robot.
Four months ago, we announced that we were developing Rover and had begun testing it to deliver documents across our Moscow campus. Today, we are excited to share the latest development — the first tests of Yandex.Rover within our ecosystem of intelligent products and services. Our Beru e-commerce marketplace is a natural fit for our autonomous delivery robot, and we decided to run our first test on a big day for online shopping — Valentine’s Day. On February 14th, our main Moscow campus is busy with couriers delivering gifts ordered online for people’s loved ones.
We’ve built a deep integration between Rover and Beru to provide users at our headquarters with an efficient process that communicates every step of the delivery to the user. If recipients opt for a Rover delivery, they are prompted with an order page to select a pickup point and then can follow Rover’s way on a map.
When Rover arrives at its delivery destination, a notification informs users that it’s waiting at the selected building entrance. When the recipient meets Rover, they can unlock the cargo storage box and retrieve their package via the notification page. When the order is complete, Rover departs to process other deliveries.
Though winter in Moscow has covered our headquarters in ice, snow, and slush, Yandex.Rover is navigating through these elements to deliver packages to the Yandex community. Since we use our same proven self-driving technology in Rover, our experience operating our autonomous vehicles in the snow has helped Rover quickly deploy in the same conditions. Similarly, our driving experience on roads also enabled Rover to quickly learn how to navigate everyday obstacles. We are now developing features specific to Rover that will provide a high-quality customer experience that automates last-mile delivery.
Throughout the process of testing Beru with Rover, we are creating features that aim to provide clear communication to users with simple instructions that save time and ensure secure delivery. As we continue to integrate Rover with Beru and other services of Yandex, we envision these dynamics eventually helping millions of customers better navigate their daily routines.
