Zagreb has become the site of Europe's first commercial robotaxi service, after Croatian startup Verne secured the regulatory approvals needed to carry paying passengers in autonomous vehicles on public roads. The service, which launched on April 8 and has continued to expand through the summer, pairs Verne's operating permit and local relationships with Uber's booking platform and self-driving technology from the Chinese firm Pony.ai.
Verne's fleet consists of BAIC's Arcfox Alpha T5 electric SUVs running Pony.ai's seventh-generation autonomous driving system. Rides currently cost about €1.99 and are booked through Verne's own app. A trained safety operator still sits behind the wheel during this phase of the rollout, a standard precaution while the service builds a track record with regulators, though the company has said its goal is to move to fully driverless operation later this year pending further approvals.
A Regulatory First, Not Just a Technical One
What makes Zagreb notable is less the technology — Pony.ai and rivals such as Waymo and Baidu's Apollo Go already operate commercially in China and the United States — than the fact that Verne is the first company to clear the combination of national and municipal approvals required to charge fares for driverless rides anywhere in the European Union. Verne has said it is now in permitting discussions in 11 other cities across Europe and the Middle East and plans to enter the UK and Germany next, following Zagreb's template of phased approval.
The milestone lands as regulators elsewhere in Europe are still working out their own frameworks. Waymo has begun testing in London ahead of a planned commercial launch, under a UK pilot program that started this spring, while comprehensive EU-wide rules for autonomous vehicles remain in development. The European Transport Safety Council has warned that the bloc's patchwork of national approvals risks outpacing safety oversight, and has called for a dedicated EU road safety body to review autonomous-vehicle rollouts with the same rigor applied to aviation incidents. Verne has not disclosed the specific terms of its Croatian permit, but has pointed to its incident-free testing record in Zagreb as evidence its phased approach can satisfy stricter regulators in larger markets.
