Europe’s autonomous mobility race has its first commercial winner, and it is not London, Berlin, or Paris.
On April 8, 2026, Pony AI Inc. (NASDAQ: PONY; HKEX: 2026) announced that its robotaxi programme in partnership with Verne and Uber officially began commercial service in Zagreb, Croatia, marking Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service. The launch is not a pilot. It is not a restricted trial. Members of the public can now hail and pay for an autonomous ride in a European capital city.
What Went Live
Operating daily from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., the service initially spans approximately 90 square kilometres across the wider Zagreb city centre area, including Zagreb Airport. The public can book and pay for Pony.ai-powered robotaxi rides using the Verne app, with availability on the Uber app to follow.
The initial rollout uses electric vehicles equipped with Pony.ai’s seventh-generation autonomous driving system. This Gen-7 platform represents Pony.ai’s most commercially mature technology stack, the deployment builds on recent Gen-7 unit economics breakeven milestones achieved in two tier-one cities in China, which the company says supports the commercial viability of its technology and business model.
The Three-Party Model
The commercial structure behind the Zagreb rollout is as important as the technology itself. Under this model, Pony.ai provides its autonomous driving solution; Verne acts as fleet owner and service operator; and Uber integrates the service into its global ride-hailing network, complementing Verne’s own customer platform.
This division of responsibilities, technology, operations, and distribution, creates a replicable commercial framework. Pony.ai does not need to own the fleet or navigate local regulation in every new market. It provides the autonomous intelligence; partners handle the execution on the ground.
The efficiency of Pony.ai’s joint-deployment model enabled rapid market entry and service launch, coming just two weeks after the three companies officially announced their European partnership.
Why Zagreb, Not the Major Capitals
Verne’s roots in Zagreb go some way to explaining the result. The company was spun out of Rimac Group, which is based in the Croatian capital and has spent years in discussions with local regulators. That regulatory groundwork gave Zagreb a structural advantage over better-resourced but more complex cities.
Zagreb features complex driving scenarios, including narrow, winding streets, unique traffic regulations, and a mix of old and new neighbourhoods from medieval and modern eras. Pony.ai has pointed to these conditions as a meaningful proof of adaptability, the Gen-7 system was not validated in a purpose-built testing environment. It went into a real European city with real urban complexity.
The Expansion Mandate
Zagreb is the opening position, not the destination. Verne has begun permitting discussions with 11 cities across the EU, the UK, and the Middle East, with more than 30 further cities under consideration.
For Pony.ai, the European launch forms part of a dual-engine growth strategy spanning domestic and international markets simultaneously. The company is targeting a fleet of 3,000 operational robotaxis by the end of 2026 and has already made progress across key international markets, conducting public road testing in Luxembourg alongside the Zagreb rollout, securing permits in the UAE, launching commercial services in Qatar, and running open-road tests in Seoul and Singapore.
This milestone positions the company on track to achieve its target of deploying in more than 20 cities worldwide by the end of 2026.
What This Signals
Europe has, until now, watched autonomous mobility commercialise in China and the United States from a distance. The Zagreb launch ends that observation period. A paying passenger can sit in an autonomous vehicle in a European capital today — not in a restricted corridor, not with a safety driver behind the wheel, but in a fare-generating commercial service.
The commercial model demonstrated here, platform provider, fleet operator, and global distribution network operating under a single deployment agreement, offers a template that could accelerate autonomous mobility rollouts across markets with similar regulatory and urban profiles.
For investors in the autonomous mobility space, the Zagreb launch is the signal that commercialisation is no longer a future projection. It is a present operational fact.
