U.S. ride-hailing platform Uber announced that it will cooperate with Chinese self-driving company Pony AI and Croatian self-driving company Verne to launch what it calls "the first commercial self-driving taxi service truly open to the public" in Europe. Currently, the three parties have launched public road tests in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. In the near future, these self-driving vehicles will provide ride-hailing services to local users through Uber’s taxi-hailing application.
This move is seen as Uber's latest move to "hedge risks" for its business model before the advent of the "self-driving taxi era." With the industry generally anticipating that driverless ride-hailing may impact the traditional manned ride-hailing business, Uber has formed partnerships with dozens of autonomous driving companies in the past year, trying to prove to the capital market that even if it fully enters the era of self-driving taxis, Uber can still maintain a place in the travel ecosystem.
Under the newly announced cooperation framework, Uber will provide the taxi-hailing platform and user portal, Verne will be responsible for fleet operations and management, and Pony.ai will provide autonomous driving technology solutions. The three parties plan to first launch commercial services in Zagreb, then expand to more European cities, and expand the fleet to "thousands of self-driving taxis" in the next few years.
Currently, the vehicle being tested in Zagreb is Pony.ai’s Arcfox Alpha T5 Robotaxi. This model is equipped with the company’s seventh-generation autonomous driving technology stack and is jointly developed and produced by Pony.ai and Chinese state-owned car company Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC). According to the vision of the three parties, once it officially starts charging passengers, the project is expected to become the first truly commercial self-driving taxi service in Europe.
However, Uber and its partners are not "without rivals" in the European market. American self-driving company Waymo has said it plans to launch a self-driving taxi service in London, England, in 2026. Uber itself is also testing Level 4 self-driving vehicles in Germany in partnership with self-driving company Momenta. At the same time, Volkswagen has previously announced that it will launch an automated online ride-hailing service in Germany through its travel subsidiary Moia, further intensifying competition in this emerging field.
As for Verne, it has long been known as "Rimac Group's self-driving taxi sub-line project". Since the project was first announced, official updates have been infrequent. Mate Rimac, founder and CEO of Rimac Group, demonstrated a fleet of 60 self-driving prototypes on social media late last year. However, it is still unknown whether these prototype vehicles will actually enter service on the Uber platform in the future.