The Moscow Transportation Museum has taken Matryoshka, the unmanned electric bus, into its storage facilities, a development reported by the city’s official portal. The vehicle is set to join the museum’s permanent exhibition as one of 53 items kept in a garage on Novoryazanskaya Street. In the museum’s schedule, the bus will eventually be accessible to visitors during guided excursions to the depot, with the first public trips planned to begin in April. The decision to preserve and reveal the prototype in this way reflects Moscow’s ongoing interest in cataloging the evolution of urban mobility and the emergence of automated transit solutions within Russia. (Source: mos.ru)
Matryoshka is celebrated as a unique model, widely recognized as the first unmanned electric bus produced in Russia. It is intended to become a centerpiece of the Moscow Transportation Museum’s permanent display, offering a tangible link to the earliest experiments with driverless technology in the country. The project’s presence in the museum’s depot tours contributes to public understanding of how autonomous concepts move from laboratories and mockups to real vehicles under test. These exhibits and the accompanying visits aim to illustrate both the promise and the practical challenges tied to removing the driver from urban buses. (Source: mos.ru)
Historical records trace the eight-seat prototype back to 2016. Alexei Bakulin, leading Bakulin Motors Group, collaborated with Volgabus to bring the project to life. While initial plans called for mass production in the Vladimir region in 2018, those ambitions never materialized. The work around Matryoshka captured attention as a milestone in Russia’s experimentation with autonomous public transport, highlighting the technical, regulatory, and economic hurdles that accompany trying to scale a driverless bus beyond a single prototype. (Source: mos.ru)
Among the technical ambitions cited for Matryoshka was full autonomy and the ability to operate across a broad set of intervals and routes. The design relied on electric power, with the expectation that a complete charge would take about four hours. In its concept, the vehicle was intended to carry eight passengers, offering a compact, city-ready shuttle that could slot into existing routes without requiring a large fleet or a dedicated charging infrastructure. The description of the model demonstrates Moscow’s interest in testing the viability of driverless buses and exploring the questions of safety, reliability, and public acceptance. (Source: mos.ru)
Earlier coverage mentioned price considerations, noting that similar models could be discussed in the neighborhood of about 1.5 million rubles. Whether for testing, demonstration, or nascent public-service use, Matryoshka embodies a specific moment in Russia’s automotive and transport narrative where innovation meets policy and public interest. The museum’s decision to place it on display, while still active in storage, underscores the value placed on learning from these experiments and documenting how autonomous thinking began to take root in Russia’s bus fleets. (Source: mos.ru)