Image Credits: Prnewswire
Grubhub, an online meal-ordering service, announced on Friday that it was terminating cooperation with Russian tech behemoth Yandex NV (YNDX.O) for autonomous robots that deliver food to college students. The announcement comes at a time when Russian enterprises are being boycotted throughout the world due to the invasion of Ukraine. Just Eat Takeaway.com NV (TKWY.AS), Europe’s largest food delivery provider, owns Grubhub. In July, the two companies announced multi-year cooperation that will connect Yandex’s autonomous delivery robots to Grubhub’s network on certain college campuses.
“We will indeed be terminating our agreement alongside Yandex,” Grubhub announced in a statement. “As we transition away from Yandex, we’re working with our university partners on other service choices.”
What else do we know so far about driverless delivery robots
Image Credits: Medium
Driverless robots will soon deliver meals to students on college campuses in the United States, according to Yandex (YNDX.O), a Russian internet behemoth, and online food-ordering startup GrubHub (GRUB.VI), which announced a multi-year agreement on Tuesday.
Yandex, dubbed “Russia’s Google,” provides a wide range of services, from advertising and search to ride-hailing and food delivery. It started testing self-driving delivery robots in 2019 and is already operational in downtown Moscow and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Yandex’s delivery robots will be integrated into GrubHub’s platform, and the service will be offered on certain college campuses this autumn. GrubHub collaborates with over 250 college campuses across the United States.
“So even though university campuses appear to really be incredibly hard for cars to maneuver, particularly in food delivery,” stated “ Brian Madigan, GrubHub’s vice president of corporate & campus partners, “Yandex robots conveniently direct exposure parts of campuses that automobiles cannot — basically eliminating a significant hurdle universities face because once attempting to implement the latest tech.”
Yandex’s delivery robots are using the same technologies as the company’s self-driving automobiles.
Was this due to the Russia-Ukraine war?
Ukraine was not mentioned by Grubhub. Due to the obvious invasion, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation,” several corporations have ceased doing business in Russia and with Russian firms. A Yandex spokeswoman acknowledged the relationship had ended but provided no further details.
Nike and IKEA closed shops in Russia on Thursday, as trade restrictions and supply bottlenecks added to political influence for corporations to quit doing business in Russia as a result of its incursion of Ukraine.
Societe Generale (SOGN.PA), a French bank, said it was striving to reduce its risks in Russia, fearing a tit-for-tat response by Moscow to Western sanctions, as more corporations, including vodka producer Diageo (DGE.L) and Toyota (7203.T), ceased operations in the country.
Apple, Ford, and Shell have indeed criticized Russia’s strike, but some of the pronouncements made on Thursday were more practical, focusing on supply and sanctions as shipping routes block and states prohibit shipments to Russia.
