Rimac joins robotaxi race
Rimac Group — via a Rimac‑affiliated startup called Verne — is teaming with Uber and Pony.ai to launch a commercial robotaxi service in Zagreb, aiming to be the first robotaxi operator in Europe and leapfrog Tesla in the space. ( )
Pony.ai will provide its Gen‑7 autonomous driving system and production ARCFOX Alpha T5 robotaxi hardware, Verne will own and operate the vehicles, and Uber will fold the service into its app while acting as a strategic partner and potential investor. (blog.pony.ai) The ARCFOX Alpha T5 entered mass production in July 2025 and Pony.ai marked its 300th Alpha T5 rollout on Oct. 24, 2025, a model the company says is built for all‑weather, 24/7 robotaxi service. (prnewswire.com) Verne was launched by Mate Rimac with CEO Marko Pejković and CDO Adriano Mudri and has been building a factory near Zagreb since early 2025 to produce its autonomous electric vehicles. (mobileye.com) Public‑road validation and on‑street testing are already underway in Zagreb, but the partners have not published a firm commercial start date, saying only that initial deployment work will begin “soon.” (investor.uber.com) Pony.ai says it has accumulated more than 55 million kilometres of testing, holds citywide driverless permits in Chinese cities such as Shenzhen, and has set a public target to scale to roughly 3,000 robotaxis across more than 20 cities in 2026. (prnewswire.com) The partners say the Zagreb deployment is the first step in a planned European roll‑out, with Verne and Uber signaling expansion to additional cities and Pony.ai describing an ambition to scale the fleet to “thousands” outside China. (prnewswire.co.uk)
