How Yandex.Taxi is using automation to detect drowsy and dangerous drivers

In its two decades in business, Yandex has been called the Russian Google, Amazon, and Spotify, mostly due to the Moscow-based tech giant's expansive reach into every nook -- including online search, music streaming, email, maps and navigation, video, and more. In 2011, Yandex launched a mobile taxi-hailing service called Yandex.Taxi, leading to the inevitable "Uber of Russia" proclamations. Then in 2017, Yandex.Taxi and Uber merged their operations in the region to launch a new joint venture targeting Eastern Europe. Yandex.Taxi now operates across the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), in addition to a handful of markets elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company has followed a trajectory similar to Uber's, insofar as it now also offers food delivery, and in 2018 it launched one of Europe's first public self-driving taxi services as part of a limited pilot.