Zagreb begins fully driverless robotaxi passenger trials
Pony.ai and Verne are testing operator-free rides on a 22-kilometre route to Franjo Tuđman Airport
Zagreb has begun fully driverless robotaxi test rides carrying passengers on public roads, with no safety operator or other personnel inside the vehicles. The trials, involving Pony.ai and Croatian operator Verne, have been described as the first of their kind in Europe.
The service runs in real traffic over a 22-kilometre route connecting Verne’s headquarters and a Zagreb business district with Franjo Tuđman Airport. Verne’s remote team monitors the vehicles, but does not remotely drive or control them.
Pony.ai’s autonomous-driving system operates the robotaxis, while Verne is responsible for fleet operations, passenger services and remote supervision. The companies announced the start of the driverless rides on Sept. 10, while Verne told ENCA that testing had begun in August.
The programme moves beyond the earlier commercial arrangement in which an autonomous-vehicle operator rode onboard. It builds on a commercial robotaxi service launched in Zagreb in April by Verne, Pony.ai and Uber, which gives riders access through Verne’s or Uber’s app.
Since that launch, the fleet has travelled more than 200,000 kilometres, completed several thousand customer rides and received an average passenger score of 4.7 out of five, according to Pony.ai. Connected Automated Driving reported that the commercial operating area exceeded 100 square kilometres.
Verne operated about 30 automated vehicles across central Zagreb, the airport and selected nearby areas. About 1,500 people used the service, more than 10,000 were on its waiting list, and rides were priced at 1.99 euros to encourage use and feedback. A separate average rating of 4.8 out of five was reported based on thousands of commercial rides.
The driverless vehicles are Pony.ai’s seventh-generation robotaxis, using an L4 domain controller developed by the company and built on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX. Pony.ai said its safety architecture included 360-degree sensor coverage, layered redundancy and fail-operational capabilities. The testing is being carried out under Croatian rules and approvals for autonomous-vehicle prototype testing on public roads.
Pony.ai operates fully driverless commercial services in four major Chinese cities and said it had logged more than 100 million kilometres of autonomous operations worldwide, including more than 40 million in fully driverless mode. The fully driverless routes are expected to expand over the next few months to cover the entire local operating area. Verne said it hoped to roll out a fully automated commercial service next year.