(Reuters) – Avride has teamed up with Hyundai Motor Co to extend its Robotaxie fleet and signed an agreement with the South Korean car manufacturer to develop and operate autonomous vehicles jointly, companies announced on Wednesday.
The Texas-based startup will extend its fleet to 100 Hyundai Ioniq 5 cars this year and further in 2026, while Adride seeks to enter new regions and improve its self-commissioning system.
Avride is part of many autonomous technology development companies expanding their robotaxis fleet, entering new markets and linking with carpooling companies.
Tesla, directed by Elon Musk, is preparing to launch its autonomous carpooling service in California and Texas this year, while the Alphabet Waymo unit has deployed its Robotaxment services exclusively on the Uber platform on Tuesday in Austin, Texas.
Avride said its latest Ioniq 5 vehicles will be part of its Robotaxment services exclusively on Uber in Dallas, Texas.
Its cars will be manufactured in the United States in the Metaplant facilities of Hyundai in Georgia, then modernized with the suite of autonomous Avride technologies.
The companies said that as part of the partnership, they will develop a fleet of Robotaxis and will explore the potential to collaborate on autonomous delivery services using Avride robots.
The startup was previously part of the autonomous division of the Russian company Yandex, from which it separated last year after the restructuring of companies.
The Russian company had partnered in 2019 with the Hyundai automotive food unit to develop software and hardware systems for autonomous cars.
The Avride team in the past has worked with vehicles manufactured by Hyundai Motor as platforms for its autonomous technology, including Sonata and Ioniq 5 models.
(Report by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; edition by Vijay Kishore)