Europe's First Truly Driverless Robotaxi Just Started Rides in Croatia

Croatia has launched what is being billed as Europe's first fully driverless robotaxi service. The initiative represents a significant shift in the European autonomous vehicle landscape, moving beyond supervised testing to public-facing rides without safety drivers in the front seat.

What Happened

The service is operated by Verne, a mobility company with ties to Rimac, in partnership with autonomous technology provider Pony.ai and ride-hailing giant Uber. According to reports, the vehicles are navigating public roads in Croatia without human safety operators, distinguishing the deployment from previous European trials that required a driver to be present for regulatory compliance. The rollout leverages Pony.ai's autonomous driving stack integrated into the fleet, while Uber provides the dispatch platform and user interface for customers.

Why It Matters

For the broader EV and autonomy sector, this launch challenges the long-held assumption that Europe's strict regulatory environment would delay true Level 4/5 autonomous deployments compared to the US or China. By securing approval for driverless operations, Croatia has positioned itself as a regulatory sandbox for European autonomy. For Tesla and other manufacturers, this increases pressure on European regulators to accelerate approval for Full Self-Driving (FSD) supervised and unsupervised features. It also demonstrates a viable business model where technology providers (Pony.ai), mobility operators (Verne), and aggregators (Uber) collaborate, potentially offering a blueprint for how other autonomous services might enter the EU market.

The Bottom Line

Croatia's launch of a driverless robotaxi service via Verne, Rimac, Pony.ai, and Uber marks a regulatory breakthrough for autonomous mobility in Europe, setting a new benchmark for public deployment without safety drivers.