Pony.ai

Autonomous Vehicles · Mobility · Robotaxi

Expansion

Uber launches Europe's first robotaxi rides in Zagreb, powered by Pony.ai

The deal splits autonomous driving, fleet operations and app booking across three separate companies, a model built to scale beyond one city.

• Uber launched autonomous rides in Zagreb on August 19, letting riders book a Pony.ai-powered robotaxi through the Uber app for the first time in Europe, with a licensed safety operator monitoring each ride.
• Pony.ai, a Chinese autonomous-driving company already running paid, fully driverless robotaxi services in four Chinese tier-one cities, supplies the Level 4 self-driving system used in Zagreb.
• The service splits into three roles: Pony.ai provides the driving technology, Croatian startup Verne owns and operates the vehicle fleet, and Uber handles booking and the rider experience via UberX or Comfort.
• The Zagreb rollout is the first step in a partnership to deploy more than 2,000 Pony.ai robotaxis across four additional European cities plus the Middle East, announced days earlier on August 14.
• Croatian operator Verne had already run its own commercial robotaxi service in Zagreb since April 2026, completing thousands of rides before the cars were added to Uber's app.
• By plugging into Uber's app rather than building its own consumer brand, Pony.ai gains instant demand while Uber positions itself as the aggregation layer for competing robotaxi fleets across Europe.