MOSCOW — SberAutoTech, a subsidiary of Russia’s largest lender Sberbank, has developed a self-driving car, Flip, which the corporate described as a “taxi of the long run.”

Sberbank is diversifying in areas starting from meals supply and taxi providers to cloud computing and cyber safety, and has made technological strides, final yr unveiling a brand new digital assistant, good speaker and different devices.

Flip is the scale of a traditional passenger automotive however with house for six passengers, SberAutoTech stated.

It has met the utmost requirement of worldwide automated driving requirements, however to this point has solely been examined on closed tracks.

SberAutoTech didn’t disclose how a lot it had invested within the undertaking or any particulars about costs, suppliers or its anticipated manufacturing timeline.

Replaceable batteries energy the car’s electrical motor, however it could possibly additionally harness the ability of other fuels like pure fuel and hydrogen, SberAutoTech stated.

“The corporate’s know-how is the battery format, which permits for all modules to get replaced in not more than 5 minutes, similar to refilling a normal automotive with conventional gasoline,” the corporate stated.

“The versatile structure of SberAutoTech’s self-driving know-how will allow us to roll out options throughout quite a lot of verticals, like freight transport, final mile, and taxis,” stated Sberbank Chief Know-how Officer David Rafalovksy.

The curved design, with no apparent entrance or rear, resembles the flying autos from the 1985 Soviet TV collection ‘Visitor from the Future,’ which had been additionally referred to as ‘Flip.’ SberAutoTech didn’t say whether or not the movie had impressed the design.

Russian market chief Yandex has already examined 1000’s of driverless hours in Russian cities and overseas, whereas its driverless robotic buggies have began delivering restaurant meals in Moscow.