Robotaxis have taken to the roads of Croatia in what operators say is the first time a commercial driverless taxi service has been made available to the public anywhere in Europe.
Croatian mobility company Verne said it has been operating 11 of the white-painted taxis since April 8.
According to the company, a journey costs €1.99 at the introductory rate. Registered customers can book a ride and unlock the car doors via an app.
The taxis are based on the Chinese Arcfox Alpha T5, made by Chinese automotive giant BAIC and not available to buy in Europe.
Looking ahead, Verne also plans to deploy its own purpose-built autonomous vehicle, a compact two-seat robotaxi specifically designed for driverless ride-hailing. The service is backed by Uber and powered by the Chinese self-driving company pony.ai.
The robotaxi service will initially be available through the Verne app and is set to be soon accessible through the Uber app, following a recently announced strategic partnership between Verne, Pony.ai and Uber.
The service is designed to run completely autonomously but, as with self-driving taxi services in the US in their early days, the car still has a human behind the wheel to intervene if anything goes awry.
The plan is to move over to full robot control over the car in Zagreb by the end of the year. Verne said tens of thousands of kilometres have already been covered by the robotaxis and some 300 passengers carried, with no collisions reported.
Verne said discussions on further rolling out the robotaxis are under way with 11 cities across the EU, UK and Middle East.
