Is this the Tesla robotaxi killer? Meet the 'Verne'

Tesla (TSLA) may have some competition in the robotaxi space as Croatian automaker Rimac Automobili is set to launch its new robotaxi service, Verne, in 2026.

Yahoo Finance Pras Subramanian joins Catalysts to discuss Rimac's announcement and what it means for the auto sector moving forward.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts.

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

Tesla has got some new competition in the autonomous vehicle space.

New Robo Taxi service called Vern created by the Croatian automaker.

Remax will be launching in the country in 2026.

That's according to an announcement from the company today.

Yahoo finance is pro is here with the details.

Pro thanks so much for joining us on this.

So another new Robo taxi service.

What do we know?

Well, it's called Vern, right?

Kinda after the author Jules Verne who sort of invented the future, right?

That's sort of the their, their, their North star there.

But yeah, I mean, it's a very compelling looking vehicle.

Uh and it's part of an ecosystem, right?

So this vehicle uh looks almost like a VW golf on kind of asteroids like really great auto uh a treatments.

But then the inside is actually near luxury, premium, level level interior, no pedals, no steering wheel.

It's gonna be level four autonomous robot attack.

You're gonna be operating in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, I believe in 2026.

But I think the big picture is they've come out with this vehicle a few months ahead of Elon Musk's Robo Taxi reveal, right?

Is Musk Robo Taxi gonna look this good and have this kind of level of, of luxury kind of appointments and, and also work with this as an ecosystem, right?

This comes with an app and has like a a mothership, they call it to service the cars like what's the Tesla offering gonna be like?

And uh we're kind of seeing what other competitors are doing?

Yeah, I was gonna say I'm curious from your perspective, I mean, the analyst that you've been talking to like a company like this, the their ability are, are they really a threat to Tesla?

Do you think in the longer term or is this something that Tesla could actually use to its advantage and say, hey, here are maybe the XYZ issues that this company has since they are first of the road and here's why our Robotaxis then ultimately makes more sense for the longer term.

So, so Remax is obviously smaller than Tesla, but it's, it's no slouch.

It's, it's um it's, it's technologies being used by BMW.

Uh It owns the uh it owns Bugatti now it's, we got Rema is the, is the joint venture.

So they, they do a lot there in the automotive space.

The guy, Amate Rima is the founder of the Ron 30 years old, is known as Musk without the baggage, right?

He's a, he's a brilliant guy and entrepreneur but doesn't have some of the other things that kind of make Musk some somewhat problematic.

So there is some comparison there.

Now we're nowhere near as big as a company.

Obviously Tesla kind of has that industrial, know how and, and base to kind of make things happen.

But I think they can look at this and say, oh, what do we have to do here to kind of, are we ahead of them?

Do we have to meet some sort of criteria that they already have?

I think it's a good way to kind of show where the two sides are at right now or whoever else is in the space.

Really?

Good point.

Thanks so much.

And I think the vehicle looks, looks, looks beautiful.

And the thing is, are we going to see the Robo Taxi and Tesla that look like a mini cyber truck?

That's the issue.

If you see that car, like a little wedge shaped, you know, stainless steel thing.

Are you gonna hop in that or this?

I mean, that's, that's kind of the big question.

This would be my answer.

I mean, this company does say that they do want to deploy this worldwide.

So there is worldwide ambitions for.