Uber Just Picked a Croatian Startup and Pony.ai for a Bigger European Robotaxi Move Than Tesla Has

While Tesla is still waiting on a regulatory breakthrough for its Full Self-Driving system in Europe, a much smaller Croatian company may get to the streets first in the place that matters most: real-world commercial service.

Verne, the autonomous mobility company launched under Rimac Group, has partnered with Pony.ai and Uber to launch what the companies describe as Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service, starting in Zagreb. Uber says the service will begin there soon, with public road validation already underway and later expansion planned for other European cities and beyond.

That immediately makes this more than just another startup announcement. Tesla is currently seeking approval from the Dutch vehicle authority RDW for its driver-supervised Full Self-Driving software, and Reuters reported last week that Tesla expects a decision by April 10, 2026.

Even if that approval arrives, it would cover a supervised driver assistance feature rather than a full commercial robotaxi operation, which requires a far more demanding regulatory and operational framework. That gap between demonstrating technology and actually running a paid autonomous ride service is where Verne now sees an opening.

Uber’s Multi-Partner Strategy Has Now Reached Europe

Uber’s role here is especially important because this deal fits a much larger pattern. Instead of betting on a single autonomous winner, Uber has spent the past year building a broad network of partners across the robotaxi space.

Reuters has reported recent Uber autonomous deals involving Rivian, Lucid, Nuro, and Motional and broader infrastructure and platform investments tied to its push toward a multi-player autonomous ecosystem. The Verne and Pony.ai partnership is notable because it gives Uber a serious robotaxi move in Europe rather than just another North American deployment.

Under the new arrangement, Pony.ai will provide its seventh-generation autonomous driving system, Verne will own and operate the fleet, and Uber will integrate the service into its ride-hailing platform. Reuters and Uber both say the initial vehicles will be robotaxis based on the Arcfox Alpha T5, with the long-term goal of scaling the fleet into the thousands over the next several years. Uber is also investing in Verne, underscoring that this is not a small experimental tie-up but a strategic move with real commercial intent.

Zagreb Could Become Europe’s First True Robotaxi Test Bed

Zagreb may sound like an unexpected place for such a big step, but the city makes strategic sense. It is Verne’s home market, it gives the company a manageable first deployment environment, and it allows

Rimac’s broader ecosystem to support the rollout more directly. Verne first emerged publicly in June 2024, when the company, then evolving out of Project 3 Mobility under Rimac Group, unveiled its own purpose-built two-seat robotaxi and said it planned to start service in Zagreb in 2026. At that stage, the project was closely tied to Mobileye technology. The new Pony.ai and Uber agreement suggests the commercialization path has evolved, but the ambition has stayed intact.

That is one reason this launch matters. Verne is not appearing out of nowhere, even if it remains unfamiliar to many readers outside the region. Mate Rimac has spent years building credibility by turning ambitious engineering ideas into real products, and Verne has already been presented as part of a broader autonomous mobility vision rather than a one-off concept. The company’s public materials still describe its mission as building a self-driving mobility service for the European Union, which gives the new Zagreb rollout much more weight than a simple tech demo.

Why Verne Could Reach The Street Before Tesla

The most important distinction in this story is not brand size. It is a regulatory pathway. Tesla’s European effort is currently centered on getting approval for Full Self-Driving Supervised in the Netherlands, which could potentially support wider EU acceptance later in 2026. But supervised driver assistance and driverless commercial ride hailing are not the same thing. A robotaxi service needs vehicle certification, local operating approval, safety oversight, fleet management, customer service infrastructure, and a city-by-city rollout strategy. Verne’s approach, with Pony.ai supplying the autonomous stack and Uber supplying the user platform, is built specifically around that commercial reality.

That does not mean success is guaranteed. Europe remains a far more cautious regulatory environment for autonomous mobility than parts of the United States or China, and the Zagreb service still has to move from testing into fare-charging operation. But the fact that public road validation is already underway and that Uber, Pony.ai, and Verne are openly framing this as Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service makes the effort impossible to dismiss.

For Tesla, the race in Europe has largely been about software approval. For Verne, it is about building an actual business on actual streets. That is why this Croatian startup now looks so interesting. It may never be the biggest name in autonomy. But if it gets its fleet certified and starts carrying paying riders in Zagreb first, it could become the company that turns autonomous driving from a future promise into an everyday European reality before Tesla does.

This article originally appeared on Autorepublika.com and has been republished with permission by Guessing Headlights. AI-assisted translation was used, followed by human editing and review.

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