Moscow-based tech giant Yandex today announced it has expanded testing of its self-driving cars to Michigan. A fleet of Yandex's driverless vehicles recently hit Ann Arbor city streets, including the company's fourth-generation autonomous Hyundai Sonatas created in partnership with Hyundai Mobis. Yandex says it had planned to provide rides in its autonomous taxis in Detroit during the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), which was scheduled to take place in June. The company had already done a significant amount of preparatory work by mid-spring, so when NAIAS was canceled in April, Yandex began searching for a Michigan location to facilitate longer-term commercial testing. Yandex says Michigan's "progressive" and "supportive" regulatory environment will enable "rapid" development and advancement.

Europe's first driverless taxi service has launched in Russia. The fleet of autonomous taxis are operated by Yandex – a Russian search engine that boasts many of the same services as Google, including self-driving vehicles, e-commerce, and a voice-activated AI assistant. Yandex has launched its trial project for the driverless fleet in the new town of Innopolis, which is being developed as a'high tech city' in the Republic of Tatarstan. The taxi service ferries passengers between five designated taxi ranks, including stops at the town's university, sports stadium and popular local apartment blocks. The service will free-of-charge to passengers during the trial and Yandex will have an engineer inside the cab at all times to ensure safety should the system fail.