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RIMAC IS SHIFTING FROM ELECTRIC SUPERCARS TO ROBOTAXIS
RIMAC IS SHIFTING FROM ELECTRIC SUPERCARS TO ROBOTAXIS
/
VERNE, NAMED FOR FAMED AUTHOR JULES VERNE, IS THE CROATIAN AUTOMAKER’S FIRST
FORAY INTO DRIVERLESS VEHICLES.
By Andrew J. Hawkins, transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who
covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The
New York Daily News and City & State.
Jun 26, 2024, 9:15 AM UTC
SHARE THIS STORY
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Verne’s robotaxi. Image: Verne
A new robotaxi service is coming to Croatia, courtesy of the country’s leading
supercar company, Rimac. The service will be called Verne, named for French
novelist and poet Jules Verne, and will launch in Zagreb in 2026, the company
said.
It’s an interesting pivot for a company that has been on a rocket-ship
trajectory over the last few years. Founded by Mate Rimac in a garage as a
one-man operation, Rimac has since become a highly desirable brand, with many
legacy automakers calling upon the startup to help them build their own electric
supercars. In addition to making the record-breaking Nevera hypercar, Rimac also
took control of Bugatti from Volkswagen in 2021 in a surprise move that created
a new company called Bugatti Rimac.
Image: Verne
And now the company of the 256mph electric hypercar is getting ready to launch
its own robotaxi. I assure you, this is less random than it seems on the
surface. Rimac has been working on autonomous technology since 2017, and in
2021, the company received €200 million from the EU to develop robotaxis as part
of a €6.3 billion recovery plan for Croatia. (The incentive package opened the
company up to a lot of criticism, including one member of the Croatian
parliament calling Mate Rimac a fraud and “the Balkan Elizabeth Holmes.” ) The
company has also received funding from Hyundai and Kia.
Today, Rimac is out to prove that the money isn’t going to waste. Previously
dubbed Project 3 Mobility, the newly renamed Verne will be led by Rimac’s friend
Marko Pejković as CEO and Adriano Mudri, the designer of Nevera, as chief
designer. The company said it chose to honor the author of such classics as
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth
because “he used the theme of travel as the driving force in his storytelling.”
Image: Verne
The robotaxi will be fully electric and rely on autonomous technology from
Mobileye, the Intel-owned company that supplies autonomous and advanced
driver-assist technology to many automakers. Verne will use Mobileye Drive, a
self-driving system that utilizes the Israeli companies’ EyeQ system-on-a-chip,
as well as a data crowdsourcing program called the Road Experience Management,
or REM, which uses real-time data from Mobileye-equipped vehicles to build out a
global 3D map.
The vehicle is Level 4 fully autonomous, meaning it lacks traditional controls
like a steering wheel and pedals. Gone also are other familiar touchstones, like
windshield wipers and side-view mirrors, in the interest of reducing drag and
enhancing the aerodynamic experience.
Image: Verne
Verne’s first vehicle looks radically different from most self-driving cars on
the road today. Rather than opt for a retrofitted minivan or a toaster-shaped
shuttle with protruding sensors, the Verne robotaxi is sleeker and much smaller
with the overall appearance of a two-door hatchback. The expansive greenhouse
and sloping windshield enclose an interior that is more luxurious than your
average robotaxi. And the vehicle’s two sliding doors are certainly
eye-catching, with Rimac saying they were designed for ease of entry.
The decision to go with a two-seater may strike some as curious, considering
many robotaxi operators use more high-capacity vehicles. After all, more seats
equals more fares, which means more revenue. But Verne’s chief designer Mudri
cites data that shows “9 out of 10 rides are used by 1 or 2 people. Therefore,
we can satisfy most of all trips with a two-seater and create unmatched interior
space in a compact-sized vehicle.”
Image: Verne
Image: Verne
Reducing the number of seats will make for a more spacious, luxurious ride,
Verne says. But the company’s robotaxis won’t just be accessible to the
superrich; in a statement, Mate Rimac promised that Verne’s autonomous
ridehailing service will be “affordable for all.”
Without a steering wheel or other clunky controls, Rimac was free to go big on
its interior screen. The 43-inch display nearly spans the width of the dashboard
and includes widgets for media, cabin controls, and weather. The central widget
is devoted to the navigation, with a design that appears similar to Tesla or
Waymo, with an illuminated line stretching out from the virtual vehicle to help
the rider keep track of the trip.
Image: Verne
Image: Verne
Verne says riders will be able to listen to their own music or watch movies on
the widescreen display. Seventeen speakers are located throughout the vehicle,
which includes a Dolby Atmos sound system.
The robotaxi can be summoned via a mobile app, much like Uber or Waymo. Through
the app, customers can customize certain settings, like temperature, lighting,
and even scent, before their vehicle even shows up. On the backend, all the
vehicles are connected, enabling Verne to optimize fleet management tasks.
Image: Verne
Image: Verne
Verne says it will build centrally located vehicle depots called “Motherships”
in the cities in which it operates. These will be hubs for the robotaxis to be
cleaned, charged, and maintained. The vehicles themselves will be produced at a
factory in Croatia that has yet to be built.
After Zagreb, Verne says it will roll out its robotaxi service in other European
cities — first in the UK and Germany, and then later in the Middle East. While
some companies have been testing autonomous vehicles in Europe, any commercial
service appears to be a long way off. Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Waymo is operating
in several major cities in the US, and Baidu is similarly running hundreds of
driverless cars in China.
Verne is working to become the first major robotaxi operator outside those two
countries. The company has already signed agreements with 11 cities in the EU,
UK, and the Middle East and is negotiating with more than 30 cities worldwide,
it says. And it aims to “complement public transport, not compete against it.”
“In the longer term, Verne should help remove the need for a second or third car
in the household that takes up parking spaces, is used rarely, and is a
significant expense,” the company says.
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