Zagreb

One of the “attractions” if you travel to the United States or China is to take a ride in a robotaxi because until now Europe was a mere spectator. And although Madrid plans to start testing At the end of the years, a Balkan country has advanced in the old continent and it is not Germany (the Teutonic giant It is the engine of Europe in automobile industry): it is Croatia. Zagreb has become in the first European city to have a commercial robotaxis service that anyone can use, because although they are in an initial phase, it is not experimental or a closed test. Zagreb’s new robotaxis. The milestone is led by Verne, a Croatian startup that emerged from the Rimac Group ecosystem and that for this adventure has teamed up with the Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai and Uber. The service opera with 10 Arcfox Alpha T5 electric vehicles from the Chinese manufacturer BAIC equipped with Pony.ai’s seventh-generation autonomous driving system. Each unit incorporates 34 sensors, including 14 cameras, nine LiDARs and four radars, a combo that allows them to detect objects in a radius of up to 650 meters and adapt in real time to urban traffic. The idea is the following: you request the trip from the Verne app, which manages the reservation, payment and tracking (later it will also be implemented in the Uber app). The vehicle arrives autonomously and you unlock the door from your phone, get in and arrive at your destination without a human driver at the wheel. The autonomous fleet covers the center of Zagreb, the Novi Zagreb neighborhood and the airport, from 07:00 to 21:00, although the idea is to expand coverage to the entire city. Why is it important. This launch breaks a barrier that Europe has had to cross for years. While the United States has Waymo operating in several cities and China operates fleets of hundreds of robotaxis in Shanghai and Guangzhou, the old continent was entangled in fragmented regulatory frameworks, heterogeneous infrastructures and a conservative regulatory position towards autonomous cars. Zagreb just changed it. That Zagreb goes down in history as the first European city is symbolic and is also just the beginning: Verne is immersed in talks and permits with 11 cities in the EU, the United Kingdom and the Middle East and has another 30 locations under study on the table. If the service proves to be secure and scalable in Zagreb, it will likely become the regulatory and operational benchmark for the rest of the continent. Of course, there is something that should be taken into account: the core of the technology is Chinese. Context. Autonomous driving has been in the development and deployment phase for more than a decade, although the rates are very different depending on the location. Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is the most advanced benchmark with operations in several American cities and expansion plans to London by the end of 2026. In Europe there have been several lukewarm initiatives, such as autonomous buses WeRide in Leuven (Belgium), taxis Volkswagen MOIA Level 4 in Berlin or more recently, Norway has dared to withdraw your supervisor in his autonomous bus. Croatia has gone further: it has dared to take the step with a taxi open to the general public. Verne was born in 2019 within Rimac Group with the aim of developing an urban mobility ecosystem based on autonomous electric taxis. After receive almost 180 million euros through Croatia’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan and years of work with the authorities to create a favorable regulatory framework, the project is now a reality. How have they done it. The operating model It is built on three pillars: Pony.ai provides autonomous technology, one of the most mature systems in the world, with thousands of kilometers tested in Asia. Verne operates and manages the fleet as a local player with direct knowledge of the Croatian regulatory environment. Uber provides distribution and customer access from day one. Simply put, everyone focuses on what they do best. In parallel, Verne is building its own factory in Lučko, near Zagreb, where it will produce its own autonomous two-seater vehicle designed specifically for driverless urban transport, so it will have no steering wheel or pedals. This move has strategic implications for both Verne and Europe since it would mean eventually stopping depending on Chinese hardware to have its own technology and production process. Yes, but. Zagreb may be the first city with robotaxis in Europe open for commercial use and Verne may be Croatian, but the technology is Chinese and that means relying on an external player: Pony.ai supplies the driving system and BAIC manufactures the vehicles. In its favor, this pattern is not exclusive to Verne: other initiatives from the old continent follow the same trend with the exception of Wayve (Cambridge) or Mobileye (owned by Intel, born in Israel). But as the saying goes: evil of many… The second point of friction is regulation. In this initial phase of the deployment, the cars circulate with a safety operator on board who does not touch the steering wheel: his role is not to drive, but to intervene only if the system fails. The elimination of the driver depends on the European authorities giving the green light, for which there are no defined deadlines. Verne has declared that he will do it “as soon as possible.” In Xataka | Autonomous cars are beginning to change a paradigm: we no longer need four seats in a taxi In Xataka | No more greeting the driver: Norway launches the first bus where there is not a single human in control Cover | Verne