Uber is about to launch its first-ever robotaxis in Europe, and the market focus will be Croatia. Ridesharing Forum has more.
It’s Croatia!
“Through a strong ecosystem of partnerships, autonomous mobility can both scale globally and more effectively,” the CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, chatted with Ridesharing Forum. “By bringing together Pony.ai’s proven autonomous driving technology, Verne’s operational and market expertise, and Uber’s global platform, we’re taking an important step towards making autonomous ride-hailing available to more riders in more places.”
So, the setup will be this: instead of the more famous cities in Europe, the focus of this partnership will be in Croatia, particularly in the country’s capital, Zagreb.
The robotaxis are to start in Zagreb, wherein on-road testing is already underway.
China-owned Pony.ai, which is also listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and NASDAQ, will supply its seventh-generation autonomous driving technology, deployed on Arcfox Alpha T5 cars developed with the state-owned Beijing Automotive Group.
Meanwhile, there’s also Verne, a spin-off from Rimac, a Croatian supercar market, to act as the fleet owner and day-to-day operator.
What’s Uber’s role then? Well, it will integrate its offerings into its international ridesharing system, operating together with the latter’s customer-facing app, making a strategic investment in Verne as part of this deal.
“Europe needs autonomous mobility that can move from testing to a real service,” Verne said. “At Verne, we are bringing together the technology, platform, and operational capabilities required to make this a reality, starting in Zagreb before expanding to new markets.”
Uber aiming to overtake its markets in Great Britain, Germany
Interestingly enough, this deal is bound to overtake the robotaxi markets in Great Britain and Germany. Robotaxis and Uber are big in these two nations.
This three-way deal between Verne, Pony, and Uber aims to place the Croatian capital ahead of London and Berlin.
The founder and the CEO of Pony, James Peng, likewise talked to Ridesharing Forum, saying, “Partnering with Uber and Verne represents an important milestone as we continue to expand autonomous mobility globally. In China, our Gen-7 has achieved meaningful commercial scale, including unit economics breakeven in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, demonstrating the readiness of our technology and business model. By leveraging this experience, we are well-positioned to accelerate commercialization internationally, combining our technology with Uber’s global platform and Verne’s role in enabling multi-market deployment, to build a scalable and sustainable autonomous mobility ecosystem.”
Pony.ai is a global leader in providing large-scale commercialization of autonomous mobility. Celestial at that. Leveraging its car-agnostic Virtual Driver innovation, which is a full-stack autonomous driving technology that integrates seamlessly with the proprietary software, hardware, and offers of this company, it is developing a commercially viable and sustainable model that enables that big production and deployment of cars across various transportation uses.
Uber, crafted with respect. So, things are set, and the international and the global are only waiting for your insights. Share insights by signing up on Ridesharing Forum today!