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Yandex’s Self-Driving Car Deftly Handles Snowy Conditions in Moscow

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Yandex self-driving vehicle, navigating through Moscow’s snowy streets
Photo: Yandex.Taxi

Russia-based tech company, Yandex, recently tested out its self-driving vehicle on Moscow’s snowy roads. The vehicle performed quite well, which is no major feat for an autonomous car to accomplish.

While wintry weather is challenging enough for non-automated vehicles, it poses a unique threat to automated ones because the latter depends largely on a system of sensors and cameras to accurately detect and respond according to the road conditions and traffic around them. As intelligent as this technology is, it can easily mistake snowflakes for solid objects, which can trigger faulty reactions from the vehicle.


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self-driving cars

Photo: TheHUB

Yandex expressed pride at its vehicle’s test results, as it stated on the company’s blog. “We are excited to have advanced our technology to safely navigate the challenges of public streets and winter weather.” It also articulated that the team will continue to tweak the self-driving car’s technology, in the hope of speeding to the forefront of the automated vehicle industry as a whole. “It’s our goal to expand our capabilities to create a universally applicable technology that manages all road challenges and weather conditions.

As Andrew Hawkins, with The Verge, confirmed, Yandex’s goal is to achieve a Level 5 autonomous vehicle, which can be defined as a 100% self-driving vehicle that lacks conventional controls like pedals or a steering wheel, since the technology performs the same functions as a human driver.

Kudos to Yandex for its latest contribution in bringing the industry one step closer to a fully autonomous vehicle that can handle a wide variety of weather conditions with ease.


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News Sources: The Moscow Times, The Verge, Yandex