Fully Self-Driving Taxi Test Reaches Croatia

A Croatian company launched Europe's first commercial robotaxi service earlier this year and is now testing fully self-driving trips in Zagreb.

A Croatian company launched Europe's first commercial robotaxi service earlier this year and is now testing fully autonomous journeys in the country's capital.

According to Ambassador Arjan's report, quoted by Fiz, the Verne company, with the support of Uber and using the self-driving cars of the Chinese company PonyAI, will start testing driverless robotic taxi services in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.

Verne CEO Marko Pikovic announced that the company has started testing self-driving taxis without a safety operator inside the vehicle. According to him, this is the first test of this type in Europe. So far, in the trips of this fleet, a backup driver or a safety operator has been behind the wheel.

Self-driving taxis are already operating in the US and China. Last month, London became the second European city after Zagreb to launch a self-driving taxi service; However, in this service, the safety driver was present in the car. Meanwhile, various companies are competing to launch Europe's first commercial fully self-driving taxi service.

Pikovic announced that Verne's fully autonomous tests were conducted in August this year on a 22-kilometer route between the company's headquarters in Zagreb and the city's airport. He predicts that this service will be available to the public from next year and will gradually expand to other European cities.

Verne's fleet currently consists of 30 self-driving cars that operate downtown, around the airport, and in designated areas. According to the company, about 1,500 people in Zagreb have used this service, and more than 10,000 people are on the waiting list.

Users can order Verne taxis through the Uber app or the company's own app. Verne has set the cost of each trip at 1.99 euros to attract users and get their feedback to develop the service.