AI-powered Yandex Go begins service in Türkiye's Istanbul
Yandex Türkiye subsidiary Yandex Go has officially launched its services in Istanbul, marking a significant step in the company’s expansion strategy in Türkiye.
The launch was announced during a press conference attended by Alexander Popovskiy, International CEO of Yandex Search and General Manager of Yandex Türkiye. During the event, the company revealed plans to invest $100 million in its mobility operations in Türkiye to strengthen its technological infrastructure, expand service capacity, and grow its driver network, CE Report quotes Anadolu Agency.
Initially, users in Istanbul will be able to access the platform’s “Economy” and “Comfort” service categories through the Yandex Go application, with additional categories expected to be introduced in the future.
The platform works exclusively with licensed taxi drivers and aims to reduce empty mileage, improve drivers’ earnings efficiency, and better meet daily transportation demand.
Already operating in Izmir, Antalya, Ankara, Mersin, and Adana, Yandex Go considers the addition of Istanbul a major milestone in its growth plans for the Turkish market.
According to the company, an analysis of more than 129,000 trips completed in Istanbul using Yandex AI navigation technology found that smart route planning reduced travel times by an average of 7.07% per trip. This represents the highest efficiency improvement recorded among the Turkish cities where the platform currently operates.
The company said that its machine learning-powered route optimization system delivers particularly strong results in Istanbul due to the city’s dense traffic and complex road network.
Based on an analysis of trips conducted across Türkiye over the past year, Yandex Go reported that its AI-powered route optimization and vehicle dispatch system saved passengers more than 254,000 hours in total travel time—equivalent to approximately 29 years.
With Istanbul now joining the platform’s network, Yandex expects those time savings to more than double nationwide. The company also noted that its intelligent dispatch system helps reduce average estimated vehicle arrival times to under three minutes in cities where the service operates.
The platform’s route planning technology analyzes live traffic data, historical trip records, traffic congestion forecasts, and road network characteristics within milliseconds to identify the most efficient route. The system continuously improves by comparing estimated arrival times with actual travel outcomes.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Alexander Popovskiy said the company is gradually expanding Yandex ecosystem services throughout Türkiye and described the Istanbul launch as an important milestone.
“We believe this investment will contribute to the development of Istanbul’s multimodal transportation system. Istanbul is a very large city and a crossroads of different civilizations. Yandex Go was developed to make mobility more efficient in cities with heavy traffic and complex transportation structures,” Popovskiy said.
He added that the $100 million investment would help bring advanced transportation technologies to a broader audience and allow more passengers and drivers in Istanbul to benefit from the platform’s services.
Popovskiy also highlighted the company’s experience in other international markets with transportation challenges similar to Istanbul’s, noting that Yandex Go first expanded into other Turkish cities to better understand local dynamics before entering the country’s largest metropolitan market.
The executive emphasized that the company has focused on complying fully with Türkiye’s transportation regulations and industry requirements, explaining that Yandex began its gradual expansion in the country nearly two years ago and now believes its technology is ready for large-scale deployment in Istanbul.
Photo: Wikipedia
