Europe's first robotaxi rides with nobody in the driver's seat

Pony.ai / Verne / Uber — Zagreb, Croatia — Pony.ai and Verne began fully driverless robotaxi rides carrying passengers on public roads in Zagreb on 10 Sep 2026, the first time a European robotaxi programme has removed the human safety operator from the vehicle. The route runs 22 km linking Verne's headquarters and a central business district to Franjo Tuđman Airport, with the driverless area to be widened over the following months. These are test rides on top of the commercial service the three partners launched in Zagreb in April 2026, which carries safety operators — so Europe now has a supervised paid service and an unsupervised test programme, not a driverless commercial service. Pony.ai's overseas pipeline exceeds 4,000 robotaxis, including more than 2,000 planned with Uber across Europe.