This European Supercar Maker Is Putting Robotaxis On Uber
Plus, China's biggest lidar companies achieve insane growth
Welcome to the Ride AI newsletter: The most comprehensive weekly digest of news and intelligence at the intersection of technology and transportation.
LAST CALL FOR TICKETS.
This is your last chance to get access to top executives delivering exclusive insights, exclusive access to try the latest AVs and robotics, and free Waymo rides and Waymo highway and airport access, all in one go.
We also have exclusive Ride AI hotel rates at the Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel.
Located in the heart of Union Square, it’s a chill Waymo ride away from SFJAZZ.
Use rate code PART to get 15% off your stay, valid from April 12th to 17th.
Now, Here’s What You Need To Know Today.
Top Story
Verne, Pony.ai, and Uber have announced a partnership to launch Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service, starting in Zagreb, Croatia. The setup: Verne, a Croatian startup, owns and operates the fleet. Pony.ai supplies the autonomous driving technology, deploying its Gen-7 system on the Arcfox Alpha T5. Uber brings its platform and global ride-hailing network alongside Verne’s own app. On-road testing in Zagreb is already underway, with a fare-charging launch targeted for the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approval. It is not clear what will happen to Verne’s own robotaxis built using Mobileye’s technology.
If Verne sounds unfamiliar, you’re not alone. It’s a spinout from Rimac Group. Yes, the Croatian EV and hypercar company founded by Mate Rimac. The project began in 2019 under the name Project 3 Mobility. Kia invested in Verne early on, and the company has since begun factory construction on its own vehicles. The name comes from Jules Verne, which is either very on-brand or very on-the-nose, depending on how you feel about robotaxi timelines.
The three partners aim to scale the fleet to thousands of vehicles before expanding to other European cities and global markets. For Pony.ai, this is a direct pipeline to the European market as the company pushes hard toward its 2026 target of 3,000 robotaxis across 20+ cities worldwide. Catch Leo Wang, Pony’s CFO, talking about their push to 3,000 at Ride AI on April 15th.
Domestic News
Zipline has added another $200 million to its Series H, bringing the round to $800 million total, after delivery volume in January and February came in ahead of forecast. The drone delivery company is valued at $7.6 billion and is expanding to at least four U.S. states this year, with Houston, Phoenix, and Seattle already announced. It also just signed a new national-scale contract in Rwanda to launch its Platform 2 service in major cities there.
TechCrunch put together a chart that really puts Waymo’s ridership growth into perspective. The company is now doing 500,000 paid rides per week across 10 U.S. cities, a tenfold increase in less than two years.
If the theme of Ride AI 2026 is “it’s time to market,” then this Axios piece on the branding risks facing new robotaxi makers is a timely warning about what “going to market” can cost you. EV makers like Rivian and Lucid are cutting deals to put their cars on Uber, which gets them buyers, revenue, and a reason to keep factories running. But the risk is that Uber ends up owning the customer relationship while the vehicles become white-label commodities. For example, Jaguar and Waymo. “Almost everybody’s first ride in an autonomous vehicle was in a Jaguar i-Pace,” says VC Reilly Brennan. “Nobody got out of a Waymo ride and said, ‘I’m going to buy a Jaguar today.’” Waymo has now received its last Jaguar delivery and is moving on to Zeekr and Hyundai. The i-Pace has been discontinued. Lucid says it plans to develop distinct branding to separate its consumer vehicles from its robotaxi offerings. We’ll see if that’s enough.
International News
Alongside the Verne announcement, Pony.ai reported its first ever profitable quarter: Q4 2025 net income of $75.5 million, though it’s worth noting that figure was primarily driven by an investment gain rather than core operations. The full-year 2025 net loss still came in at $76.8 million, though that’s a 72% reduction from the year prior on revenue of $90 million. More importantly, Pony.ai says it has now achieved per-vehicle breakeven in both Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The company’s current fleet stands at 1,446 vehicles and is targeting 3,000 robotaxis across 20+ cities by year’s end, with nearly half of that expansion overseas.
Two of China’s biggest lidar makers posted landmark financial results in the same week, which says something about where the market is going. Hesai reported its first-ever full-year GAAP profit at $62.3 million net income in 2025, flipping from a loss the year prior, on revenue growth of 45.8% and 1.62 million units shipped, triple the prior year. RoboSense posted its first profitable quarter in Q4 2025, with revenue up 46.1% year-on-year and robotics lidar shipments up an eye-watering 2,565% in the same period. Both companies are projecting around 3 to 3.5 million units in 2026, with production capacity expanding to 4 million units. With sensor costs continuing to fall and capabilities ever increasing, after years of handwringing about whether it was commercially viable, the lidar market appears to be doing just fine.
Momenta, the Beijing-based autonomous driving startup backed by GM, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and SAIC, has confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO and is said to be seeking at least $1 billion in the listing. The company, valued at over $5 billion in its last round, also counts Tencent, Temasek, and Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital among its backers. Momenta has partnerships with both Uber and Grab on the robotaxi side, and it previously explored a U.S. IPO in 2024 before that filing lapsed. No final decisions on the Hong Kong listing have been announced.
QCraft, a Chinese autonomous driving startup with ADAS deployed in over a million vehicles, has raised a $100 million Series D to double down on L4 autonomy and physical AI, including world models and reinforcement learning. The company plans robotaxi pilots in 2026 and scaled deployment in 2027.
Audi has begun pre-sales of the A6L e-tron in China, priced from 313,000 to 443,000 yuan (~$45,340+). The electric luxury sedan is built at Audi’s first purpose-built EV plant in China and comes equipped with Huawei’s Qiankun ADS system for urban and highway point-to-point navigation.
A Recommended Related Event
Our friends at Curbivore are holding their annual gathering from April 16th to 17th in downtown Los Angeles. Interested in attending? Use our exclusive link or discount code rideai50 to get 50% off tickets.
What In The China
Denza, a luxury sub-brand of BYD, has released its new Z9 GT with a very unusual autonomous drifting mode. Why? Cause.
Video credit: Wheelsboy on Instagram
Alright, that’s it from me… until next week. If you enjoy this newsletter, share it with your friend, colleague, or boss. Thank you for reading; Sophia out!