Pony.ai and Croatian mobility startup Verne have begun fully driverless robotaxi rides carrying paying passengers on public roads in Zagreb, removing the safety operator from a service that only launched with an in-car chaperone five months ago.
A European First On A 22 KM Route
The driverless tests run along a 22-kilometre route linking Verne's headquarters and a major Zagreb business district with Franjo Tuđman Airport Zagreb, conducted under Croatian regulations and autonomous-vehicle testing approvals. Since Verne launched the service in April 2026, the fleet has covered more than 200,000 kilometres, completed several thousand customer rides and posted an average passenger rating of 4.7 out of 5. The joint deployment model splits work three ways: Pony.ai supplies the Level 4 autonomy stack, Verne runs the fleet and local operations, and Uber connects riders through its app.
Pony.ai's Seventh-Generation Robotaxi With Nvidia Inside
The Zagreb fleet uses Pony.ai's seventh-generation robotaxi built on its Level 4 domain controller — a Pony.ai-designed board running on the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX platform and the safety-certified DriveOS operating system. Pony.ai says the vehicle carries 360-degree sensor coverage with redundant systems designed to keep it operating through single-component failures, the same architecture underpinning the company's driverless commercial services in four Chinese cities. Company-wide, Pony.ai's autonomous vehicles have accumulated more than 100 million kilometres of driving, including more than 40 million kilometres without a driver onboard.
Overseas Pipeline Passes 4,000 Robotaxis
The Croatia deployment is a marquee win for Pony.ai's international strategy, which packages its autonomy stack with local operators to reduce the capital needed to enter new regions. Pony.ai says recent partnerships have pushed its overseas deployment pipeline past 4,000 robotaxis — including a plan with Uber for more than 2,000 vehicles across Europe and the Middle East, and a Stellantis-backed L4 pilot with Bolt in Luxembourg. The company is targeting a global fleet of more than 3,500 robotaxis operating across 20-plus cities by the end of 2026, joining rivals like Waymo and Zoox in racing to scale commercial autonomous rides in 2026.
Reporting based on coverage from Pony.ai, AI Insider and PR Newswire.