Imagine a perfectly ordinary taxi ride. You sit down, close the door, and within minutes, a conversation starts on its own. Sometimes it drifts into serious topics, sometimes into laughter, sometimes you find yourself recounting your whole day to a complete stranger. And then there’s the familiar question: “Which route would you like us to take?” – followed by explanations of why this street is better, where the traffic is heavier, what’s going on in the city… and suddenly, the ride becomes more than just transportation.
We’re used to this. And probably many of us have enjoyed it. But what happens when you enter a vehicle – and that conversation is gone? No questions, no route suggestions, no glances in the rearview mirror. Just you, silence, and technology that “knows” the way better than any driver. This is where a new era of mobility begins – one in which the taxi is no longer a person, but a system. And the question is no longer which route you want to take, but whether you are ready to trust a ride without a driver.
It may still seem like an experience reserved for distant countries and tech metropolises. Yet, a company from this region has just pushed that boundary – by launching Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service. This story comes from Croatia, where in Zagreb, the company Verne has started a new era of mobility, introducing autonomous taxis on city streets. Citizens of Zagreb can now book rides and pay via an app.
In the first phase, electric vehicles equipped with Pony.ai’s seventh-generation autonomous driving system will hit the streets of Zagreb. It’s completely normal to feel a certain degree of fear or mistrust towards such new technology, but passengers can relax – during this early phase, trained operators will be present in the vehicles, acting as a safety net while the system fully integrates into city traffic.
For now, the service is available in key parts of the city, with plans to expand routes to the rest of Zagreb in the near future. Once all safety standards are met and the necessary regulatory approvals are obtained, the taxis will become fully autonomous, without the presence of operators.
The speed of this kind of taxi service development is confirmed by the fact that Verne is already in talks for permits with 11 cities across the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East, with more than 30 additional cities under consideration.
Perhaps we shouldn’t close the door on new technologies right away – they can bring advantages. Still, the question remains how such a change will impact taxi drivers and their work, and maybe the next step will be the introduction of AI “taxi drivers” who can chat with passengers just like we’re used to – laughter, stories about the day, and debates about the best routes.
What do you think about all this? Would you dare to try a ride like this?
Katarina Vuinac
