Hyundai Mobis has partnered with Russia’s biggest technology company Yandex NV to jointly develop autonomous vehicles, the company said on March 20.

In its research and development center in Yongin, southeast of Seoul, Hyundai Mobis inked an initial agreement to develop a prototype driverless car and build an autonomous control system to be marketed to carmakers and car-sharing startups, the company said in a statement.  

Hyundai Mobis, a key affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, has expanded its business partnerships with overseas companies that have advanced future vehicle technologies.

Yandex, which is also Russia’s largest search engine, began testing self-driving car prototypes in 2017 and launched a fully autonomous taxi service in a Russian city last year.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)