Elon Musk might be trying to launch his vision of a two-seat, all-electric, autonomous robotaxi called the Cybercab but how do you top an 1,800hp hybrid hypercar? Or, indeed, a 2,000hp full-electric hypercar?
For Mate Rimac – Croatia’s answer less to Musk than to both Enzo Ferrari and Henry Ford – that question may have seemed daunting, but the man from Zagreb had a simple answer: you follow them up with a two-seat autonomous taxi called the Verne.
It may seem incredible, but Rimac – founder of his own eponymous electric car company, and the man charged (no pun intended) by Volkswagen with the future of the Bugatti brand – was last week pulling the covers off the new Bugatti Tourbillon, all 8.3 litres, 16 cylinders, hybrid drive and 445km/h top speed of it. Indeed, he might be about to buy Bugatti outright from VW.
If you want to just buy a Bugatti car, rather than the company, you’ll need a EuroMillions win to get close to the two seats of the Tourbillon’s cabin, but you’ll be able to hop in to a Verne simply by tapping an app on your smartphone.
While it might have been tempting to launch this new autonomous taxi named after the author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days, the car was first shown in Zagreb, in Croatia, which has long been Rimac’s home.
The Verne is a two-seat autonomous taxi. And while it looks broadly conventional on the outside, save for the long, shallow-angled windscreen which stretches almost all the way down to the headlights, inside it’s quite different. You will find no steering wheel nor any pedals. There are just two reclining seats (with handy footrests) and above them a dramatic circular backlit sunroof which Rimac calls the Halo and describes as a “portal to new journeys”.
Why just the two seats? Explaining the decision, Verne’s chief of design Adriano Mudri says: “Because the data shows that nine out of 10 rides are used by one or two people. Therefore, we can satisfy most trips with a two-seater and create unmatched interior space in a compact-sized vehicle.
“We completely redefined interior space. More space than a Rolls-Royce to relax and spend your time well. We optimised the door opening so people can just step in and sit down straight away. Sliding doors were designed not to obstruct traffic flow around the vehicle while still arriving in style.
“Once inside, passengers can stretch out their legs and get super comfortable. We wanted to make the interior less automotive and more like a livingroom. There is no typical dashboard, no steering wheel, and no pedals.”
Instead of controls, anyone travelling in a Verne will get a large, 43-inch display screen, backed up by a 17-speaker sound system, which suggests that some journeys could be made just to watch a movie or the big match.
Using the app on your phone, you call up a Verne and preset all the cabin fixtures – from seats to temperature to lighting and even what scent the built-in diffuser is wafting around.
Once in the vehicle, there’s a touchscreen between the seats with which you can further control the screen, sound, settings and destination.
Rimac has also given passengers some sense of control over the Verne – there’s a physical button called the Median, which brings the car to a halt and tells it to set off again. So if it’s making you nervous, you can shut everything down.
Instead of mirrors and wipers, the Verne uses radar, camera and Lidar (a combination of laser and radar that takes a constant 3D scan of the car’s surroundings), provided by autonomous experts Mobileye, to see what’s going on around itself.
Rimac reckons the potential benefits of the Verne are multifold, from reducing traffic congestion (a squadron of Vernes could potentially carry as many passengers as hundreds of conventional cars) to improving air quality and reducing noise pollution.
The Verne has also been designed with the idea of connecting public transport hubs, reducing the need to invest in the heavy engineering of extra train tracks or tunnels.
[ Elon Musk unveils Tesla’s long-promised ‘cybercab’Opens in new window ]
Rimac wants to create the Verne as a self-contained system and has designed a “mother ship” location where a fleet of Vernes can go to recharge, be inspected, cleaned and, if necessary, repaired (although we are assured the cabins are designed to cope with plenty of abuse).
All the design work and the construction of Vernes and mother ships is set to take place at a facility in the southern part of Zagreb, as part of a plan to build the city into a motoring colossus to compete with Detroit or Stuttgart. Vehicles will be assembled, calibrated and tested here. “The production facility will put Croatia on the map as a country that encourages the development of key future technologies that will bring many benefits to the community,” said Verne chief executive Marko Pejković.
The plan is that Verne services will start in Zagreb in 2026, before expanding to the rest of Europe and beyond. The UK and Germany have been earmarked as early markets for the service.
Does it all sound rather like pie-in-the-sky? After all, the likes of Google, General Motors, Apple and others have all struggled to deploy just this kind of autonomous taxi service en masse. The software and the hardware challenges are difficult, but nothing compared to the legislative requirements and public acceptance.
Musk is now promising that Tesla’s Cybercab autonomous taxi will enter service before the end of this year, although perhaps it’s fair to say that many people are now rather less enamoured of promises made by the Tesla boss.
Perhaps a more realistic outlook is that of Renault. The French car giant said recently that autonomous tech is ultimately too expensive for individual cars, and is better focused on large-scale public transport services. That’s how it is going to focus its robotic resources in the future.
Can Rimac succeed where so many others have failed? Possibly. Mate Rimac is no one’s fool. His home-grown electric hypercar efforts were good enough for VW to hand him the keys to the Bugatti kingdom, not to mention that Porsche had before that invested heavily in his company, keen to glean Rimac’s electric motor and battery expertise.
As for the man himself? “The end result would be the best possible mobility experience for everyone,” he said. “This means that every customer will have a better service than the best mobility service [currently] enjoyed by the very rich, through a service that is affordable for all.
“You will have a safe and reliable driver, a vehicle with more interior space and comfort than the best limousines today, and a service that will be tailored to your needs in every possible way.
“The service will also provide customers with much more than just transportation from point A to point B,” continued Rimac. “It frees up your travel time, allowing you to think, learn or relax. Improving your life with every trip.
“We are shifting the attention from the technology itself to its benefits. Verne will transform travel time into a chance for personal growth, discovery and enjoyment. In essence, enriching lives in every journey you take.”
