Pony AI Inc. and Verne began carrying invited passengers with no one in the driver's seat on public roads in Zagreb on September 10, the first fully driverless robotaxi rides anywhere in Europe4,5,8. The rides follow a 22-kilometer route linking Verne's headquarters, a central business district, and Franjo Tuđman Airport2,3,7.
Pony AI Inc.'s seventh-generation autonomous driving system handles steering, braking, and acceleration, while Verne monitors each vehicle remotely6,9. Passengers book through the Uber app. The base vehicle is a BAIC Arcfox Alpha T5 electric crossover with the front passenger seat removed to create luggage space and room for a large rear-facing display.
From safety operators to empty cabins
The commercial robotaxi service launched in early April 2026 with a trained operator on board. Uber-bookable rides followed in August, still with a safety driver. The September 10 tests strip that human backstop entirely. Since April, the fleet has logged more than 200,000 kilometers, completed several thousand paid rides, and recorded an average passenger rating of 4.7 out of 511,12.
The three-way partnership splits responsibilities: Pony AI Inc. supplies the full-stack Level 4 autonomous driving technology built on a self-developed domain controller running on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX hardware and the safety-certified DriveOS operating system; Verne manages local operations; and Uber provides rider access through its platform.
The companies plan to expand the driverless zone across Verne's entire Zagreb operating area in the coming months. Pony AI Inc. said its overseas deployment pipeline has expanded to more than 4,000 robotaxis, including plans with Uber for more than 2,000 vehicles across Europe.
Regulatory and competitive context
The Zagreb rides are being conducted under Croatian regulations and approvals for autonomous vehicle testing with passengers on public roads10,15. One source noted that a Croatian clearance stops at the Croatian border, and that the only EU-wide approval route for a fully automated car, the small series pathway under Article 41 of the bloc's type-approval regulation, is capped at 1,500 units a year.
The contrast with London is direct. Uber and Wayve started Britain's first robotaxi rides on September 3 using Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles, but every car carries a licensed safety driver who remains legally responsible throughout. Waymo is targeting a commercial launch in Munich at the end of 2027. WeRide and Uber are aiming to remove the safety driver in Zurich around mid-2027.
Pony AI Inc. already operates fully driverless commercial services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and has logged more than 100 million autonomous kilometers globally, including over 40 million in fully driverless mode. The company is targeting a global fleet of more than 3,500 robotaxis across over 20 cities by the end of 2026.
Verne, backed by Rimac, has also raised more than €140 million privately from Kia, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and Rimac Group. A separate EU-funded project, Project 3 Mobility, awarded €179.5 million from Croatia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, was intended to build Verne's own purpose-built robotaxi pod; that vehicle remains under development, and the driverless rides instead use the Chinese-made Arcfox.
"Five months ago, we launched Europe's first commercial Robotaxi service. We are now taking the next step, moving from autonomous driving with an onboard AV operator toward fully driverless operations," said Marko Pejković, CEO of Verne.