The launch of the Waabi self-leading truck works with Volvo’s autonomous solutions for the joint development and development of autonomous trucks, a significant milestone as it approaches a commercial launch.
The commitment also marks Volvo’s second partnership to co-develop the big platforms with a boot partner. In May 2024, Volvo worked with Aurora Innovation to reveal the autonomous Volvo Vnl truck.
Waabi will use the same truck, but will have Waabi’s technology in it, including the sensors suite, calculation and Waabi driver software.
“We now have everything we need to escalate our product,” said Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi, at TechCrunch. “We have the AV 2.0 -generation technology. We have an approach that is much more efficient than capital and a much faster marketing.”
Waabi plans to start commercial pilots with Volvo trucks in Texas in the next two months, with a driving demonstration ready for the product on public roads for the end of 2025.
A complete commercial launch – directly among the warehouses from day one and not through terminals – will follow shortly later, according to Urtasun.
Urtasun, who previously served as a lead scientist at Uber Atg before launching Waabi in 2021, claims he has built AI models that can be held accountable as a human being who in turn accelerates commercial development and makes for a more effective system Overall. He has considered that a better AI quality will require much less data and calculates to understand and react to the world around him.
Waabi was based on simulation technology not only to test and train self-guidance technology, but also to help design trucks to complete the OEM. The start presented its first truck-with sensors, calculation and software integrated into the assembly line-in 2022.
On the contrary, competitor Kodiak Robotics has developed a self-guiding system that includes the entire unnecessary material and software system, but is not connected to a manufacturer. Urtasun is more interested in integrating the Waabi driver into autonomous trucks at factory level without interruption of an OEM assembly line.
Urtasun believes this is the best approach to building a safe, reliable product.
Waabi’s collaboration with Volvo is based on the strategic investment of the automotive industry two years ago through ARM Venture, Volvo Group Venture Capital. Volvo later participated in Waabi B.’s $ 200 million series.
Volvo will build trucks for Waabi to install production in Virginia. Urtasun said the first “handful” would come out of the assembly line in 2025 and awaiting a timetable of about two to three years to reach the volume scale.
At that time, Urtasun also noted that capital will be a “absolute need” to be successful in this industry. He says that Waabi’s “first approach” means that the starting chapter must reach a driver without a driver will be “a tiny fraction of what you see in industry today”.
To date, Waabi has raised $ 282 million, according to book data, and Urtasun reports that the start is enough to launch a business without a driver on public roads and beyond. Its main competitors, Aurora and Kodiak, increased $ 3.46 billion and $ 243 million, respectively.
Aurora is planning to launch a driver -free commercial firm until April, and Kodiak gave the first autonomous trucks to a commercial partner to use them for off -road business last month.
“2025 is the year of trucks. It is one to do it or break the situation,” Urtasun said. “I think there will be potentially more integration.”
There are not many players in the game since Embark and Tusimple have closed and Waymo stopped the truck’s autonomous ambitions.
When asked if Waabi is thinking of a merger or an acquisition, Urtasun replied: “Absolutely no. The truck is only the beginning. We will do much more than the trucks – Robotia, robotic warehouse. I have extremely big plans for the company and will remain a fully independent company. “
