2026 could be the year of robotaxis, even in “old” Europe, a market viewed with suspicion by manufacturers betting on the emerging market because it could present the most stringent regulatory criteria.
ZAGREB EUROPEAN LABORATORY
It has not gone unnoticed that the American giant Uber has struck yet another alliance, this time with the Croatian startup Verne led by CEO Marko Pejkovic. The goal is to bring robotaxis to Zagreb, the capital of the Eastern European country, which will serve as a continental urban laboratory.
THE CHINESE IN THE FRONT LINE
The dynamic Chinese company Pony.ai will also be part of the project, the only company commercially operating fully driverless robotaxi services in all four first-tier Chinese cities (Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen), which has just struck a deal with the Japanese giant Toyota. As of August 2025, its fleet counted over 500 Robotaxis and more than 170 Robotrucks.
FOR UBER, YET ANOTHER ROBOTAXI-THEMED PARTNERSHIP
Returning to the new alliance with European goals, Pony.ai will provide the software while locally Verne will manage the fleet, liaising with the administration and especially with European regulators to obtain authorizations and resolve issues that will inevitably arise bureaucratically, given that this is still a virgin sector.
As in other partnerships Uber has signed so far, the former American startup will provide its online platforms and thus its user-side customer base.
ZOOX MOVES IN THE USA
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Zoox, the robotaxi division led by Aicha Evans and backed by Amazon, has announced the debut of its vehicles without steering wheels or pedals in Austin (Texas) and Miami (Florida), positioning itself as a direct rival to Waymo and Tesla, following the crash of General Motors’ Cruise.
RIDES WITH CUSTOMERS BUT FREE
The company is already present in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Like Tesla, which is putting its Cybercab on the road (production only started last January), Zoox operates through vehicles that have not been adapted for autonomous driving; for this reason, the special federal circulation license issued by the NHTSA currently does not allow it to charge money for rides.
Every ride, in short, is free, but since the AI at the wheel needs enormous amounts of data to refine its capabilities, the goal at this stage is to collect as much information as possible by testing these robotaxis on the road, in situations certainly unprecedented for the onboard autopilot.
