I rode in a self-driving car for the first time, and it was operated by the Google of Russia — here's what it was like

Mark Matousek

January 13, 2019 2:22 PM

Mark Matousek/Business Insider

This is what the car, a converted Toyota Prius, looked like.

I rode in a self-driving car for the first time at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The car was operated by Yandex , the Google of Russia.
If I hadn't been making a point of paying attention to the vehicle's performance, I likely would have forgotten that it was driving without human assistance.

Yandex is the Google of Russia, known for running a search engine that, by some measures , is more popular than Google in its home country. Like Google (via a spin-off company, Waymo), Yandex is also developing autonomous driving technology.

The company operates an autonomous ride-hailing service in two Russian cities and demonstrated its software at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. I rode in a converted Toyota Prius on a 4.3-mile loop, my first experience riding in a self-driving car. The car was outfitted with three lidar sensors, five cameras, and eight radars.

Here's what my ride was like.

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