Verne is the newest participant in the race to develop a fully autonomous, boundary-free EV robotaxi, and it comes at the hands of Rimac.
A sensation in the realm of EV supercars, Rimac is synonymous with ultra-luxurious electric vehicles that push the boundaries of performance, if you’re willing to pay the price.
Now, the company’s founder, Mate Rimac, and two of his closest colleagues from Rimac Group, both Marko Pejković and Adriano Mudri, have launched Verne, the company’s crack at an autonomous robotaxi that will be launched in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2026.
Mudri has been named Chief Design Officer at Verne, while Pejković takes over as CEO of the new venture. Its goal: built a fully autonomous EV, enable it as a mobility service platform, and build an adequate infrastructure to support it.
Fully Autonomous EV
Verne will launch a vehicle that is built upon a completely new platform that is designed around safety and comfort, two factors that the company feels are most important in the robotaxi experience.
Completely engineered from the ground up, Verne will develop an autonomous EV using Mobileye Drive, an autonomous platform.
Starting from scratch and building what it believes will be fully operational within two years, the platform is free of any compromises and disadvantages that would come from developing a groundbreaking vehicle type with scraps inspired by a vehicle designed for human driving.
Mobility Service Platform (MSP)
Tailored for driver-free pickup, passengers are the first thought in Verne’s initial development. Of course, this is no different than traditional ride-hailing services that exist today, but without a human controlling the wheel, things need to be different.
Before ordering a ride, the Verne app will allow users to completely personalize everything. From temperature to comfort to lighting to scent, those who request a ride from a Verne EV can choose everything.
Infrastructure
Verne will expand past Zagreb in the coming years, and each city where the company operates will be the home of the “Mothership,” where every vehicle is inspected, maintained, cleaned, and charged.
Verne’s first production facility for the new EV will be in Croatia. The cars will be deployed worldwide.
New Leadership
Mudri has huge expectations for Verne, which is named after Jules Verne, an author who is said to be “the man who invented the future”:
“Just as he used the theme of travel as the driving force in his storytelling, we use it as our inspiration in shaping a future filled with imaginative innovation and tangible achievement. His faith in the future and his spirit sparked the curiosity in generations of scientists and explorers. Making things that sometimes seem impossible, possible.”
Mate Rimac said the goal for Verne is to have more than just Point A to Point B transportation:
“The end result would be the best possible mobility experience for everyone. This means that every customer will have a better service than the best mobility service enjoyed by the very rich, through the 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.”
Robotaxi Design
Verne’s robotaxi vehicle will have two seats and an interior concept that “completely redefines” past narratives about interior space. Mudri said that 9 out of 10 rides through ride-hailing services 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. We completely redefined interior space. More space than a Rolls-Royce to relax and spend your time well.
It will also feature things like music and movies with an ultrawide screen and 17 speakers for enhanced audio.
As for the exterior, it will be sleek, with deeply integrated cameras, radars, short and long-distance-lidars, no windshield wipers, and no side-view mirrors:
Čestitamo Mati Rimcu i njegovom timu na izradi prototipa budućeg autonomnog električnog vozila, “Verne”! Ponosni smo na još jednu ?? inovaciju koja će mijenjati svijet. Podupiremo ulaganja koja povezuju digitalnu i zelenu tranziciju i ostvaruju ciljeve 5️⃣.industrijske revolucije. pic.twitter.com/3yK73MESr7
— Andrej Plenković (@AndrejPlenkovic) June 26, 2024
“This makes the aerodynamic performance more efficient and allows for easier cleaning. One typical element of an automobile we kept is the trunk. So you don’t need to worry if you‘re going to the airport with a lot of luggage or just finished a major grocery shopping.”
There’s a long way to go, a lot of competition, and so many variables that come into play with this new project.
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Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the third quarter of 2026, marking a reasonable performance on the various financial metrics. Tesla still plans to hold a call that will field investor questions at 5:30 p.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. CT.
Here’s where Earnings came in:
- Total Revenues: $28.046 reported vs. $28.34B expected
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48 reported vs. $0.45 expected
- Operating Margin: 2.6 % reported vs. 2.5% expected
- Operating Income: $718M reported vs. $721M expected
- Free Cash Flow: $1.531B reported vs. ~-$4.51B expected
Tesla $TSLA Earnings Results:
Revenues: $28.046B
Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48
Operating Margin: 2.6%
Operating Income: $718M
FCF: $1.531B— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 21, 2026
Major Takeaways
Full Self-Driving (Supervised)
“FSD (Supervised)⁴ attach rate continued to grow, reaching over 75% of new vehicle deliveries in North America – our most mature market – a nearly twenty percentage point sequential increase. We believe that FSD is driving demand in markets where it is available, and we continue to work with regulators to get it approved in other markets.”
Tesla Semi
“We began volume production of Tesla Semi, our Class 8 heavy-duty truck. The top variant can go 500 miles at full 82,000 lbs gross combination weight while achieving an efficiency of 1.7 kWh/mile. That efficiency allows the Tesla Semi to use a third of the energy used by a comparable diesel truck to haul the same payload. In a transportation market where energy is one of the largest components of total cost per mile, this will provide a meaningful advantage to Tesla Semi operators.”
SI Compute
“We plan to reach 400 MW of SI training compute by the end of the year, supporting the development of both vehicle and humanoid robot autonomy software. Additionally, we continued construction for the Austin Fab, where we plan to start commissioning equipment in 2027.”
Robotaxi
“We began deployment of Cybercab into our Robotaxi fleet in Austin. We reached nearly two million cumulative unsupervised miles for our Robotaxi service as of the end of the quarter. Operating hours in Austin are now 6am to midnight, and we expect to reduce wait times via increased fleet supply and improvement of Robotaxi orchestration algorithms. Grok is available in Cybercab with access to Grok Bot and Connectors, which allows users to manage their inbox, calendars, files, chats and tasks – all hands free via voice command – making Cybercab a mode of transport, a productivity space and, with our entertainment options, a second living room.”
Interested in ordering a Tesla? Use my referral code for three free months of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) here.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reports its earnings for Q3 today. Here’s what to expect, as the company will reveal its balance sheet after the market closes on Wednesday.
Tesla already reported deliveries just after Q3 ended, and it demolished Wall Street consensus estimates of roughly 462,000 vehicles. Tesla delivered 486,532 cars in the third quarter, which was a big beat, but was down 2.1 percent from the same quarter last year. Energy storage deployments were 13.7 GWh, up year-over-year.
Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong
For the quarter, analysts have already compiled their predictions for what Tesla will report this afternoon:
- Total Revenues: $28.34B
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.43
- Operating Margin: 2.5%
- Operating Income: $721M
- Free Cash Flow: ~-$4.51B
Here are a few things we are looking forward to hearing about on the call:
Automotive Gross Margin and Overall Profitability
This was 16.3 percent in Q2, down from 19.2 percent in Q1, and was impacted by warranty charges and some fading regulatory credits. Consensus implies overall gross margin near 18 percent, but a miss here would potentially reinforce concerns about pricing pressure on its vehicles.
Pay attention to energy storage margins as well, especially since Tesla missed GWh expectations, although it was still a strong quarter.
Robotaxi/Cybercab, Unsupervised FSD, and Optimus Progress
The Say questions from retail investors usually focus on these types of projects, and this quarter is no different. Scaling the Cybercab fleet beyond Austin amid the open NHTSA safety review, timeline for Unsupervised FSD in customer cars, Robotaxi unit economics, and Optimus cost per unit plus when it could start generating revenue, are all things to be looking for.
Any concrete timelines or regulatory path details will likely move the stock more than the near-term numbers. SpaceX merger speculation, which was detailed during SpaceX’s earnings call last night, may also surface, although the key details were shared last night.
Elon Musk just confirmed the Tesla and SpaceX merger step everyone was waiting for
Say Investor Questions
- How does the Cybercab fleet scale past Austin, and what’s the regulatory path outside Texas given NHTSA’s open safety review?
- When can we anticipate FSD unsupervised in customer cars?
- When will the CyberCab be available for customer purchase/ownership?
- What’s the unit economics per paid robotaxi mile, and how does it compare to the thirty-cent target?
- Tesla has acknowledged that HW3 vehicles cannot support unsupervised FSD. When will owners know whether they can upgrade their hardware for free, and when will Tesla provide a clear plan?
The full Earnings Call will be streamed this evening after market close around 5 p.m. this evening.
SpaceX confirmed the date of Starship’s 15th launch window with some massive ambitions for the mission, as it will attempt to catch Ship for the first time.
CEO Elon Musk confirmed during SpaceX’s Earnings Call last night on October 20 that it would launch Starship for its 15th test flight in November, and there are some incredible things the company wants to try, making it perhaps the most groundbreaking launch in the program’s history.
SpaceX delivers blockbuster Q3 results as Super Intelligence segment booms
The most major development of the call was SpaceX’s intention to catch Ship alongside catching the Super Heavy Booster, something that has happened in the past. SpaceX showed an animation of the Ship catch, which will be done on the launch tower’s chopsticks:
SpaceX has released a new Starship tower catch animation for the upcoming Flight 15! https://t.co/kStn01Da8u
— Truthful🛰️ (@Truthful_ast) October 20, 2026
This monumental goal is to catch both the Ship and Booster in a dual-catch scenario, an incredible feat since SpaceX has never been able to reuse a Ship after launch. Musk said it would be “the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered,” and said it would be a “profound technology milestone.”
Musk said the odds of success on this first Ship catch attempt are “more likely than not,” but SpaceX is ultimately prepared for more tries moving forward. The SpaceX frontman said that, starting next year, Starship would have a “steady stream” of flights through the end of the year.
The cadence will accelerate in 2027, with Musk stating the company plans to target weekly flights in the first half of 2027 and twice-weekly by year-end.
The Flight 15 attempt follows that of Flight 14, which took off in late September and was Starship’s first orbital mission. It deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, accomplished a controlled ocean splashdown of both stages, and shed more light on potential challenges for the program moving forward.
As of now, the Starship program is firing on all cylinders.
Interested in ordering a Tesla? Use my referral code for three free months of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) here.
Tesla Q3 2026 Earnings results: in-line revenues, slight beat on EPS
Tesla reports Q3 Earnings today: here’s what to expect
