Europe's First Commercial Robotaxi Services Launched by Pony AI

A global frontier in the large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving technology, Pony AI Inc., announced its robotaxi program in partnership with Verne and Uber has officially started commercial service in Zagreb, Croatia. It is marked as the first commercial robotaxi service in Europe.

This service will soon be available via the Uber application, but by then, members of the public can book and pay for Pony.ai-driven robot rides through the Verne application. This service will further expand its reach to the entire city, but initially start from key districts of the Croatian capital. The service will operate daily from 7 am to 9 pm while initially spanning nearly 90 square kilometers across the wider city center area of Zagreb, along with Zagreb Airport.

According to the Precedence Research, the applied AI in autonomous vehicles market size accounted for USD 13.20 billion in 2025 and is predicted to increase from USD 17.34 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 17.34 billion by 2035, expanding at a CAR of 31.40% from 2026 to 2035 due to the increasing demand for improved vehicle safety, need to minimize human errors, massive investment in R&D with rapid advancement in computing hardware.

The founder and CEO of Pony.ai, Mr. James Pend, said, “This launch marks an important milestone for Pony.ai as we continue to expand our commercial robotaxi operations globally. As we advance our dual-engine growth strategy, Zagreb represents both our first commercial robotaxi service in Europe and a meaningful validation of our Gen-7 robotaxi capabilities in a new market. Together with strong partners, we are building a scalable path to bring safe, reliable, and accessible autonomous mobility to more users around the world."

Therefore, as Pony.ai continues to grow in its robotaxi business, the company experts anticipate its dual-engine strategy and joint-deployment model to continue supporting driving fleet expansion with its goal of completing 3,000 vehicles in its fleet by the end of this year.

A recent report by Precedence Research highlights that the applied AI in autonomous vehicles market is benefiting from government support for smart mobility via favorable policies and rapid advancements in AI algorithms with high-performance GPUs.