Avride Sidewalk Delivery Bots Expand to Japan with Rakuten Partnership

Avride Sidewalk Delivery Bots Expand to Japan with Rakuten Partnership

Avride sidewalk bots will start delivering restaurant orders and groceries in central Tokyo this week through a partnership with e-commerce giant Rakuten, the latest commercial expansion by the Yandex spinout into Northeast Asia.                                                         Image Credits:Avride                  The Austin-based autonomous vehicle startup is one of four projects under Nebius Group, a Netherlands-based company formerly called Yandex NV that sold off its Russian businesses in 2024 for about $5.2 billion. Since then, Avride has pressed forward with its autonomous vehicle technology development via its sidewalk bots and self-driving cars. And it’s made progress, notably by making deals with large corporations like Uber and now Japan’s Rakuten. Avride has a small commercial sidewalk delivery operation in Seoul, South Korea, and also tests its autonomous vehicles — which still have human safety drivers behind the wheel. Last year, the company started going through the…