Avride sidewalk bots are hitting the streets of central Tokyo this week to deliver restaurant orders and groceries in partnership with e-commerce giant Rakuten. This marks the latest move by the Yandex spinout as it expands its commercial reach into Northeast Asia.

Based in Austin, Avride is part of Nebius Group, a Netherlands-based company that rebranded from Yandex NV after selling off its Russian businesses for $5.2 billion in 2024.

Avride has been pushing ahead with its autonomous vehicle technology, utilizing sidewalk bots and self-driving cars. The company has made significant strides by striking deals with major corporations like Uber and now Rakuten. In addition to its small sidewalk delivery service in Seoul, South Korea, Avride is also testing its autonomous vehicles with human safety drivers. After going through the certification process in Japan, the company is now launching commercial operations in the country. The initial launch in Japan will involve just 10 robots, with plans for expansion in the future.

In the United States, Avride is also expanding its presence. Currently, the company has around 100 sidewalk delivery bots in operation at Ohio State University through a partnership with Grubhub. Last year, Avride signed a deal with Uber that covers both sidewalk delivery bots and autonomous cars. This multi-year partnership is part of Uber’s efforts to secure various autonomous vehicle-related partnerships over the past year. Customers using Uber Eats in downtown Austin, Dallas, and Jersey City can have their food delivered by Avride’s robots. The companies also have plans to introduce Avride self-driving cars onto the Uber platform in Dallas later this year.