A competition for designing a driverless car for winter roads will be announced in Russia

ST PETERSBURG, November 7. / TASS /. The Russian Venture Company (RVC), the ”Skolkovo” Foundation and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives in 2018 will launch the technology competitions for the development of innovative technologies. In particular, the participants will have to design the first driverless car for driving on winter roads, the RVC CEO Alexander Povalko informed TASS on Tuesday.

According to him, one of the two competitions will be devoted to designing hydrogen fuel cells; the other one, to a driverless car that will be able to drive across the city in winter conditions.

"The first driverless car which will drive in the conditions of an ice-covered testing ground of a winter city with poor visibility, snow-covered road marking, claims to receive a prize," Povalko said at the conference the "National Technological Revolution 20.35" which is held in St. Petersburg.

According to him, for holding the technology competitions and the prize fund, 600 million roubles per year have been allocated from the state budget for the next three-year period. The competitions will start next year. Povalko noted that at the conference the implementation of the technology competitions will officially start in Russia. This is a new format for supporting the innovative companies which is organized by the Russian Venture Company, the Skolkovo Foundation and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, he specified.

Earlier, it was reported that in the context of organizing the competitions, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives will participate in forming the target tasks and will also bring together the jury and the experts. The RVC will participate in forming the prize fund and will also provide its tools for working with investors and large businesses to the competition participants. The Skolkovo Foundation will involve industrial partners in the projects. The competitions will imply the creation of real technological solutions on the target order of various companies.

The conference the "National Technological Revolution 20.35" is held on November 7 and 8 in St. Petersburg with support of the Russian TASS news agency. At this conference, the project is presented of a network university of the national technical initiative on training specialists for working under conditions of digital economy.