Urban Autonomy Lab
Chapter 2 · EV60

Pony.ai Zagreb — Europe's First Commercial Robotaxi Service

Date collected: 13 April 2026
Summary

Chinese operator + Rimac's Verne + Uber launch commercial robotaxi in Croatia, 90 km² service area

Headline Finding

On 8 April 2026, Pony.ai launched commercial robotaxi operations in Zagreb, Croatia — the first commercial autonomous ride-hailing service in Europe — in partnership with Uber and Verne (a Rimac Group company). The service covers approximately 90 square kilometres of the wider Zagreb city centre, including Zagreb Airport.

Detail

  • Launch date: 8 April 2026
  • Partners: Pony.ai (autonomous driving platform and operational expertise), Uber (ride-hailing integration — service to be available on Uber app imminently), Verne (Rimac Group — local operations, market readiness, regulatory execution)
  • Service area: ~90 km² across wider Zagreb city centre, including airport
  • Operating hours: Daily 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
  • Booking: Initially via Verne app; Uber app integration imminent
  • Regulatory framework: Croatian national framework (details of specific authorisation process not yet publicly detailed)
  • Global context: Pony.ai now targets deployment in 20+ cities worldwide by end-2026. It is the only company in China offering fully autonomous robotaxis across all four tier-one cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen). Zagreb joins its international expansion alongside Dubai, Singapore, and Gulf region deployments.
  • Significance: This is a Chinese AV operator launching the first commercial robotaxi service in Europe — not Waymo, not a European company. The joint-deployment model (Pony.ai platform + local operating partner + Uber distribution) is a replicable template for rapid international expansion.

Governance Implication

Europe’s first commercial robotaxi arrived through a Chinese operator partnering with a Croatian/Rimac local operator and a US platform. This triangulated deployment model bypasses the need for the AV operator to hold local regulatory expertise or fleet infrastructure. It raises questions about which entity holds primary safety accountability, how the regulatory framework distributes liability across the three partners, and whether European cities are prepared for the pace at which this model can be replicated. The EU AI Act’s classification of autonomous vehicles as “high-risk” AI systems is not yet matched by a harmonised city-level licensing framework. Zagreb may become a precedent-setting case for how European cities govern commercial AV deployment.

Sources

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