Avride’s sidewalk robots will begin delivering restaurant orders and groceries in central Tokyo this week, through a new partnership with e-commerce giant Rakuten. This marks the latest expansion for the Yandex spinout into Northeast Asia.
The Austin-based autonomous vehicle startup is one of four projects under Nebius Group, a Netherlands-based company previously known as Yandex NV. In 2024, Nebius sold off its Russian operations for approximately $5.2 billion.
Since then, Avride has advanced its autonomous vehicle technology, deploying both sidewalk robots and self-driving cars. The company has made significant strides, securing major partnerships with corporations like Uber and now Rakuten in Japan.
Avride already operates a small sidewalk delivery service in Seoul, South Korea, and continues to test its autonomous vehicles, which are still operated with human safety drivers behind the wheel. Last year, the company began the lengthy certification process in Japan, aiming to expand in the region. With certification now complete, Avride is launching its commercial operations there, starting with 10 robots and plans for future growth.
In the United States, Avride is also scaling its operations. The company currently has around 100 sidewalk delivery robots at Ohio State University through a partnership with Grubhub.
Additionally, Avride secured a deal with Uber last year covering both sidewalk robots and autonomous cars. This multi-year agreement is part of a series of autonomous vehicle partnerships Uber has signed in the past year.
Uber Eats customers in downtown Austin, Dallas, and Jersey City can now receive their food via Avride’s robots, with plans to introduce Avride’s self-driving cars to the Uber platform in Dallas later this year.