On-demand taxi booking apps have not just remained a fad but they have become our necessity these days. With the growing competition, each of the taxi apps comes up with some new technology to stay ahead in the race. Yandex is one such app that has used AI to the fullest to catch up with modern times.

Yandex.Taxi is an international technology company operating in ride-hailing and food tech businesses. It is a company that builds intelligent products and services powered by AI and machine learning. Yandex. Taxi merged with Uber in February 2018. It created a new private company called MLU B.V. incorporated in the Netherlands. Yandex.taxi was launched in Moscow, Russia in 2011. The service was introduced as a mobile app for Android as well as iOS.

Success Key of Yandex to keep in mind while developing you own yandex like taxi app

The ride-hailing service is a key business for Yandex apart from its other businesses. It is operating under a brand name ‘Yango’. Yango has been used and experienced by more than 36 million people since its launch. It has a network of more than 400,000 drivers connected to its channel. It also provides an on-demand food delivery service under the name Yandex.eats and meal kit service. The users can access the food delivery and taxi booking services through apps available.

Yandex ride sharing operated in 15 countries across the globe. Yandex taxi is operating in more than 300 large cities in Russia. Other countries where Yandex is active are Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia, Israel, Ivory Coast, and Finland. In Israel, Ivory Coast and Finland, it is better known by its name as Yango.

The Yandex ride sharing have their own mapping, routing and navigation technologies. They also have a machine learning based order distribution system. They claim that their combination reduces the wastage of time for the drivers while just looking out for passengers as the passengers themselves book a taxi on-demand. The system also eliminates the waiting time of drivers and passengers for each other and makes it easier for the drivers to take drop them to their destination. All these factors help in reducing the cost of hiring a cab.

According to the mentioned figures on their website, the taxi segment has approximately $400 million in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet. Yandex has seen a drastic 355% year-over-year growth in their revenues an the number of rides also increased by 178%.

Here is a chart showing the ranking of Yandex app in Russia in the travel category.

Another chart from Finland shows the Yandex app ranking as 12th in the travel category. Yandex is popular as Yango in Finland.

Another graph from App Annie based on the US ranking of Yandex taxi growth.

Autonomous vehicles:

Yandex introduced the driverless cars project in 2017. The development of the autonomous vehicle system started in 2016 and was tested on roads since December 2017. Yandex implemented this technology into their system to make travel safer and accessible to everyone.

Autonomous vehicles are safe vehicles. They do not require any human driver to operate. So, the passengers are directly transported to their destination by a system that does not get tired at all. There is no risk of distracted driving and the system is aware of all of its surroundings in 360 degrees. It detects the details that even the most experienced human drivers miss out.

In January 2019, Yandex’s autonomous self-driving car was seen navigating on the public streets of Las Vegas during 2019. These cars did not have an operator behind the steering wheel. The car was safely delivered to many of the passengers from the Hard Rock Hotel and casino to show their latest advancements in the self-driven technology. They also demonstrated the scalability to operate the vehicle with the latest arising traffic conditions in Las Vegas.

Yandex team retrofitted an array of radars, lidars, and cameras on the car which help in interpreting the world around it. Radars are located in the front and rear bumpers whereas the lidars are on the roof. There are five cameras mounted on the car to capture a 360-degree video. The sensors can identify the objects within a 200-meter radius. There is a custom-built computer that sits inside the car running on software. Passengers can track their car in real-time and on the high-definition map of the streets.

Robo-taxi programs:

Yandex launched Europe’s first autonomous ride-hailing service in the tech hub of Innopolis in Russia. This was the first step towards integrated self-driving cars and first Robo-taxi in Europe. This is a critical step in the proliferation of self-driving technology and people are accepting the technology as a part of their daily lives. There have been 2300 robo-taxis passenger rides between the service locations even in the winter months.

Here is a graph showing the increased revenue and Adjusted EBITDA for Yandex taxi.

Cost of development for Taxi booking app:

A basic taxi booking app has some common features like the three modules- user module, driver module, and admin module.

If you wish to start with MVP/Demo, here is a price chart for your basic taxi booking app.

Learn more about how our taxi booking app development process works here.

If you wish to add some other features using the AI and machine learning technology and IoT, the price and time required to build the app differs.

Looking at the current business scenarios of taxi booking services, we can conclude safely that the future of taxi booking app depends on the IoT and machine learning technology. The more you provide your target audience with ease, the more the chances for you to stay in the competition.

At Coruscate, we have developed many taxi booking apps successfully. Our team of researchers is coming up with new ideas every day regarding the features of the taxi booking apps. Connect with us to discuss in detail regarding your personalized app and the scope of AI and IoT in this sector. You can even ask for a free demo through the contact us form.