A revolution in taxi and passenger transport.
Why build a new taxi company at all? Because the old model has real problems, for passengers and for drivers, across Europe and beyond. Much of the best public data comes from the UK and the US. Here's what the evidence says, and what we're doing about it.
A quarter of road deaths involve alcohol
Why every ETIOCA car has an online alcohol interlock.
Cars & coverUnchecked cars, uninsured rides
Crashes, uninsured trips and missing vehicle cards.
LithuaniaOne in five on a non-EU licence
Who is really driving your ride-hailing car?
Estonia42 app taxis without a vehicle card
The checks that weren't done in Tallinn.
Shadow industryWho is really driving?
Rented accounts and unchecked drivers. At ETIOCA there's no account to rent.
EuropeStricter rules, a quarter of drivers gone
What Poland's licence rule revealed about the market.
Fair workEmployees by default
The EU Platform Work Directive, and why we're already there.
BalticsRiga's drivers want fairer rules
Protests in 2026, and a different deal for drivers.
JobsRobotaxis remove the driver. We're hiring them.
Self-driving pilots begin in England. We are building 100,000 driving jobs.
Passenger safetySafety in the back seat
What police and operator figures show, and why a wall and a camera matter.
Driver safetyDrivers deserve protection too
Four in ten drivers report physical violence. Our drivers work behind a wall.
Road safetySober, steady and within the limit
Alcohol interlocks and speed limiters, as standard in every car.
AccessibilityOnly 2% of private-hire cars take a wheelchair
Every ETIOCA car does.
ImpactService that feeds children
Why our impact grows with the quality of our service.
One in five drivers on a licence from outside the EU.
According to Lithuania's Transport Safety Administration, about a fifth of ride-hailing drivers in the country were using driving licences issued outside the EU. From 2025, only licences from the EU, NATO countries or Ukraine are accepted for taxi and ride-hailing work. After LRT reported on illegal drivers, a major platform began testing artificial-intelligence face checks to confirm that the person driving is the person on the licence.
At ETIOCA the question "who is really driving?" never comes up. The driver is hired, vetted and employed by us, and the car knows who is behind the wheel.
Sources: LRT · LRT, on illegal drivers
Tallinn: 42 app taxis without a vehicle card.
Tallinn's municipal police said a major ride-hailing platform was not checking whether its drivers held the vehicle card that proves a car may be used as a taxi, and a newspaper identified 42 app taxis operating without one. The Estonian Language Board and the municipal police have also repeatedly found poor Estonian among app-taxi drivers, and the platform ended cooperation with more than 700 drivers who failed language tests.
ETIOCA cars are ours, licensed before they leave the depot. Our drivers are trained professionals who can talk to their passengers.
Sources: ERR News · ERR News, language skills
Who is really driving? Too often, nobody knows.
In 2025, researchers found around 80 Facebook groups where ride-hailing and delivery accounts are bought, sold and rented. One of them, "UBER ACCOUNT FOR RENT WORLDWIDE", had more than 22,000 members. A rented account lets someone who never passed any check drive paying passengers under another person's name. In 2019, London's regulator found that unauthorised drivers had uploaded their photos to other drivers' accounts and made at least 14,000 trips.
At ETIOCA there is no account to rent. Every driver is hired, vetted and employed by us, drives a car we own, signs in to a car that knows who they are, and is monitored online, down to the alcohol sensor in the cabin.
Sources: CNN, April 2025 · Tech Transparency Project
When the rules got stricter, a quarter of drivers vanished.
From June 2024, Poland required ride-hailing drivers to hold a Polish driving licence, to raise passenger safety and stop people without the right qualifications carrying passengers. Within weeks, Bolt reported 26% fewer drivers in Warsaw and FreeNow lost 15% of its drivers.
Numbers like that show how much of the market had been running outside the rules. ETIOCA is built the other way round: compliant from the first car, with every driver licensed, identified and on our payroll.
Sources: Notes from Poland, April 2024 · Notes from Poland, June 2024
Europe says platform drivers are employees by default.
The EU Platform Work Directive (EU) 2024/2831 introduces a legal presumption that people working through a platform that controls their work are employees, and it regulates algorithmic management. Member states must write it into national law by 2 December 2026.
For many platforms this is a threat to their model. For ETIOCA it's our starting point: drivers paid for every hour, a free car, insurance and maintenance included, and human managers, not just an algorithm.
Sources: Remote Work Europe · Platform Work Directive 2024
Riga's drivers want fairer rules.
On 13 April 2026, several hundred taxi drivers drove in convoy through Riga, with similar protests in Daugavpils and Jelgava, calling for clearer and fairer conditions and for action against the dominance of a single platform. Latvia is working on how rideshare driving should be regulated, including to reduce the shadow economy.
ETIOCA offers Baltic drivers a different deal: not a race to the bottom on price, but a steady wage, a new car and a transparent, fully legal service.
Sources: LSM, 13 April 2026 · LSM, Latvia moves towards regulating rideshare apps
A quarter of road deaths involve alcohol.
The European Commission estimates that around 25% of all road deaths in the EU are alcohol-related, roughly 10,000 lives every year, even though only about 1.5–2% of kilometres are driven over the legal limit. Excessive speed is one of the other main killers. The European Transport Safety Council has called for alcohol interlocks to be required for professional drivers.
We didn't wait to be told. Every ETIOCA car has an automatic alcohol sensor in the driver's cabin, connected to our servers and monitored live, plus an automatic speed limiter. You will never be driven by someone who has been drinking, or by someone racing to the next fare.
Sources: European Transport Safety Council · European Commission, road safety: alcohol · ETSC, drink driving in commercial transport
Unchecked cars, uninsured rides.
In Britain in 2023, taxis and private-hire cars accounted for 2,060 casualties in collisions involving people driving for work. In London, a private-hire driver who picks up a passenger from the street without a booking invalidates his own insurance. In the Netherlands, passengers of illegal "snorder" taxis are not insured at all. In Tallinn, 42 app taxis were found working without the vehicle card that proves a car may be used as a taxi.
Every ETIOCA car is ours: licensed, insured, inspected and serviced by us, checked before every shift, and cleaned and disinfected after every trip. You never have to wonder whether the car you're in is legal.
Sources: DfT, reported road casualties involving driving for work · TfL enforcement · ILT · ERR News
Robotaxis remove the driver. We're hiring them.
Robotaxis are coming to Europe. Britain, for example, passed the Automated Vehicles Act in 2024, creating a legal basis for self-driving vehicles. Pilots of self-driving taxis are being prepared from 2026, with London among the first cities, and in May 2026 applications opened for operators wanting to run self-driving passenger services. Early London trials still use a safety driver, and full approvals are a multi-step process.
We respect the technology. But the business case for a robotaxi is simple: take the driver out. Ours is the opposite. ETIOCA is built around people: more than 100,000 driving jobs planned from 2032, with guaranteed pay, holiday, pension and a free car. We believe a city is better served by a professional, well-paid human behind a protective wall than by an empty seat.
Sources: TaxiPoint · Autonomous Vehicle International · Tech Times
Safety in the back seat: what the numbers say.
In 2023, London's police recorded 204 sexual offences committed by taxi and private-hire drivers, or by people posing as them, against fare-paying passengers. Ten were rapes. In 2022 the figure was 222. In the United States, Uber's own safety report recorded 2,717 reports in its most serious categories of sexual assault and misconduct across 2021 and 2022.
The overwhelming majority of drivers are decent people. But these are not small numbers, and every one is a person who got into a car and did not arrive safely. That is why every ETIOCA car separates the driver's cabin from the passenger cabin with a solid wall, why cameras protect everyone on board, and why every journey is booked, tracked and driven by a vetted, employed professional.
Sources: Transport for London, taxi and private hire recorded crime figures 2023 · Uber, 2021–2022 US Safety Report
Drivers deserve protection too.
The danger runs both ways. In the 2024 National Taxi and Private Hire Driver Survey of nearly 1,500 UK drivers, 52.8% said they had been verbally abused by passengers and 40.9% said they had faced physical violence. Nearly nine in ten said more should be done to protect them.
An ETIOCA driver works in a protected cabin behind a solid wall, with cameras and a live connection to our operations centre. Fares are paid in the app or by card, so there's less cash in the car. A safer driver is a calmer driver, and a calmer driver gives a better ride.
Sources: TaxiPlus & TaxiPoint, National Taxi & Private Hire Driver Survey 2024
Sober, steady and within the limit.
Europe's new vehicle safety rules have made intelligent speed assistance standard on new cars since July 2024, and require a standard interface so that alcohol interlocks can be fitted. ETIOCA goes further.
Every ETIOCA car has an automatic alcohol sensor in the driver's cabin, connected to our servers and monitored live, so our passengers are never driven by someone who has been drinking. Speed is limited automatically for town and open roads, and exceeding the limit by more than 10–15% is not possible. No racing, no reckless driving: just a calm, professional ride.
Source: Thatcham Research on the EU General Safety Regulation (EU) 2019/2144
Only 2% of private-hire cars take a wheelchair.
In England, for example, there are 342,300 licensed taxis and private-hire vehicles, according to the Department for Transport's April 2026 figures. Only about 34,500 of them are wheelchair accessible, and that number fell by 4% in two years even as the total fleet grew by 9%. Among private-hire vehicles, the fastest-growing part of the market, just 2% are accessible, and seven licensing areas in England have no wheelchair-accessible taxi or private-hire vehicle at all.
At ETIOCA accessibility isn't a special vehicle you wait an hour for. Every car has step-free boarding, a wide sliding door, an automatic ramp and a wheelchair place. Everyone gets in the same way.
Sources: GOV.UK, Taxi and private hire vehicle statistics, England: 2026 · TaxiPoint
Service that feeds children.
Every ETIOCA car is planned to sponsor 21 children every month: one at home in the Baltics and twenty in Sierra Leone and Morocco. The money comes from what the car earns beyond the fare: its screens, the mini-bar, the shop and the wallet.
That makes our impact depend on our service. The better we treat our drivers and passengers, the more people choose ETIOCA. More people means more rides, more advertising and more services, and so more children supported every month. Doing right by people is how we do right by children.
Figures are taken from the public sources linked under each article and were correct at the time of writing. ETIOCA features describe the production vehicle as designed.