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The Croatian robotaxi startup Verne is teaming up with ride-hailing giant Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai to launch a European robotaxi service, starting in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.
Pony.ai will supply the autonomous driving system, Verne will be the fleet owner and service operator, and Uber will lend its global ride-hailing network alongside Verne’s own platform.
The move comes as Chinese self-driving technology companies are ramping up their presence in Europe as they face restrictions in the US market.
Pony.ai last year partnered with Estonian ride-hailing app Bolt to bring autonomous vehicles to Europe. Meanwhile, Uber said last month that it would deploy autonomous vehicles in Madrid in 2026 and US companies Waymo and Uber have started trialling robotaxis in London.
Self-driving or autonomous vehicles often use sensors to map the car’s surroundings, software to process this information and plot a path, and actuators (which control accelerating, steering, and braking) that execute these instructions and “drive” the car. Pony.ai’s systems, for example, use machine learning and deep learning to help cars navigate different scenarios on the road.
The companies did not provide a specific launch date, but they have begun road-testing the vehicles in Zagreb, using Pony.ai’s Gen-7 autonomous driving system on the Arcfox Alpha T5 Robotaxi.
“Europe needs autonomous mobility that can move from testing to a real service,” said Marko Pejkovic, CEO of Verne.
“At Verne, we are bringing together the technology, platform, and operational capabilities required to make this a reality, starting in Zagreb before expanding to new markets.”
The Croatian startup will also be responsible for obtaining approval from European regulators and coordinating the deployment of Pony.ai’s robotaxis across Uber and its own platforms
As part of the partnership, Uber will invest in Verne and support future expansion.
Through the collaborative effort, Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said they are taking “an important step toward making autonomous ride-hailing available to more riders in more places.”