The Croatian company Verne is entering the key and long-awaited phase of commercializing its robot taxis, and a few days ago they announced that they will do so through a partnership with Uber and the Chinese company Pony.ai. After the information about this great partnership reached us, we had – like probably most of our readers – many open questions. We were interested in a lot of things, from the question of how the project will be financed, what are the connections with the well-known funding from the European Union for the development of robot taxis, all the way to when and how we will actually be able to use autonomous driving services in Zagreb. We asked Verne a series of questions and here’s what we found out…
The EU does not finance this phase
To begin with, the company emphasizes that this partnership with Uber and Pony.ai, as well as the accompanying investments, are not part of a project co-financed by the European Union. At this stage, Uber acts exclusively as an investor and ensures access to its network of users, while the service will also be available through its own Verna application. The financing of this stage is completely separate from the development of new infrastructure and vehicles that are financed from EU funds, Verne tells us.
They also add that the current balance sheet shows that Verne withdrew EUR 89.7 million from EU funds through the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, while private investors invested over EUR 100 million in them. It is expected that the new investment round, including the entry of Uber, will significantly increase the share of private capital in the project. All allocated European funds were specifically spent on the development, testing and operational preparations of the final system, in accordance with strictly defined phases of the project.
Gradual introduction of robotaxis
Verne’s vehicles will therefore be available directly in the Verne application, while the company Pony.ai provides the system for autonomous driving. At this stage of the project, which is there for security reasons (and is fully privately funded), Verne plans to commercially launch the service using existing vehicles with an on-board security operator. This is the usual approach of robotaxi companies that has proven to be the safest and best way to introduce a service (as Waymo did for example).
The service is launched in this way to ensure maximum safety and to gradually prove the safety of the vehicle for passengers and the environment. Pony’s autonomous driving system has so far covered over 55 million kilometers autonomously – because as we know, it has been driving in China for years. It has already passed the testing and adjustment phase in Zagreb, during which it covered over 40,000 kilometers.
This start-up phase of the service, which is not funded by EU money, was added primarily because of the emphasis on security – to allow for a transition period with a security operator. During it, it is planned to commercially launch the service using the brand’s existing vehicles Arcfox with the presence of a security operator in the vehicle.
Only after all this testing and certification by an independent body from the EU, the service will be ready for commercial launch, i.e. driving with passengers. The next phase, they explain to us from Verne, will be the transition to a fully autonomous operating model in which there will no longer be a security operator in the car. That second phase will also include Verne’s final vehicle, the two-seater robotaxi presented in 2024, which is not intended to be driven with the presence of a security operator.
Why Pony.ai and not Mobileye?
The answer to this, technically important question, is given in its entirety, as we received it:
“As we have communicated from the beginning, Project 3 Mobility is not developing its own autonomous driving system, but is building a model from the beginning that relies on the integration of proven technological solutions from partners. The costs of developing an autonomous driving system are measured in billions of euros, and regarding the complexity of the development itself, it is enough to say that some of the companies that invested billions of dollars were unsuccessful (eg Cruise that invested over 10 billion USD, Argo with over 2 billion USD…). We have intensively tested the autonomous driving system of the company Mobileye with the aim of checking the system’s capabilities in real conditions on Zagreb’s roads. We also tested in real conditions the systems of four other manufacturers, including the Pony AI system. After the initial tests, the Pony AI system was additionally tested in Zagreb and was selected as the system that best meets the current technical, operational and time requirements of the project and enables safe and high-quality service provision. We believe that this choice ensures the highest standards of security for our users and the rapid implementation of technology on the market.”
When will the robot taxis? There is a waiting list
The most frequently asked question in the public concerns, of course, the date when we would be able to see robotaxis on the streets in Zagreb and order them through the application. Verne tells us that the citizens of Zagreb will very soon have the opportunity to experience the first commercial robotaxi service in Europe. If they want to be among the first to ride, they can sign up for a waiting list through Verne’s website. After the end of the research and development process, they will start the production of their own robot taxis in a factory near Zagreb.