Back in 2022 we noted how US autonomous trucking company TuSimple was popularising the term ‘Driver Out’. It seemed rather brutal at the time but, given the alternatives, we’ve come to quite like it.
Terms like ‘empty-seat’ or ‘zero-occupant’ testing might be OK for regulatory purposes but they’re unlikely to be embraced by the public. Unmanned? All a bit 20th-century space race. Driverless? There’s enough confusion surrounding that already!
The need to concisely describe the shift to remote oversight is pressing. Driver out commercial services have been up and running in China and the US for years now.
Driver out in Europe
More recently, and closer to home, our 2024 Self-Driving Vehicle of the Year winner, the Ohmio LIFT shuttle, went driver out on a route in Tampere, Finland, as part of the metaCCAZE project involving public transport authority Nysse, vehicle operator REMOTED, and Tampere University.
On the robotaxi front, Verne has now started taking invited passengers on ‘fully driverless test rides’ on public roads in Zagreb – a 22km route connecting one of the city’s busiest business centres with Franjo Tuđman Airport.
Verne CEO Marko Pejković can be seen testing the service, powered by Pony.ai’s autonomous driving system, in this video:
Dr James Peng, founder and CEO of Pony.ai, said: “Together with Verne, we are demonstrating how Virtual Driver can combine with strong local operations and experience to support a scalable path to commercialization. The progress in Zagreb provides a strong foundation for expanding driverless mobility across Europe and other international markets.”
Driver out in the UK
Intriguingly, Verne and Pony.ai have a partnership with Uber, which, in partnership with Wayve, has just launched autonomous ride-hailing (with an on-board safety driver) to the public in London. As more of these, albeit small-scale, European driver-out projects pop up, how long will it be before the UK follows suit?
