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The Toronto-based company announced June 18 that autonomous technology developer Waabi had raised $200 million to help it reach the commercial launch of self-driving vehicles in 2025.
Waabi’s autonomous truck operates with a driver inside the cab. Pilot testing is being conducted out of a Lancaster terminal in Texas that opened in April. Waabi has set its sights on becoming fully driverless by 2021, when CEO Raquel Urtasun founded the company with an $83.5-million Series A funding round.
“I have dedicated most of my professional career to inventing new AI technology that can deliver the enormous potential of AI on the physical world in an aprovably safe and scaleable way,” Urtasun stated in a press release announcing this funding round. “Over the last three years, with the incredible team at Waabi I have been able to turn these breakthroughs in a revolutionary product which has far exceeded my expectations.”
Urtasun’s vision was supported in this latest round of funding by some of the biggest players in the trucking industry as well as individuals and companies at the forefront of AI and disruptive technology.
The funding round was led Urtasun’s former employer, Uber Technologies and Khosla Ventures. Strategic investors included chipmaker Nvidia as well as Volvo Group Venture Capital. Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Scania Invest.
Volvo Group Venture Capital invested first in Waabi on January 2023. The Volvo Group unit was founded in 1997 and supports collaborations between startups, the Swedish truck manufacturer, and the Volvo Group.
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, the holding company for Volkswagen Group is the second largest automaker in the world and the parent of Traton. Scania Invest, a subsidiary of Traton truck brands, is a new investment vehicle. This latest round marks the first investment in Waabi by entities connected to Traton.
HarbourVest Partners and G2 Venture Partners are financial investors, along with Export Development Canada’s Thrive Venture Fund. Radical Ventures, Incharge Capital, and Export Development Canada are also strategic investors.
Urtasun said to TT that “the market reacted well to the proposition.” Investors are aware that current generations of artificially intelligent systems require too much capital. This is why there was a huge reaction.
The company also said that the new capital will be used to expand Waabi’s commercial operation and its team in Canada and the United States.
Waabi’s Lancaster Terminal is improving the infrastructure, operating processes, and customer service needed for commercial driverless operation. Urtasun, for example, told TT more terminals were on their way, but that finding space was a challenge because of the existing infrastructure controlled by private fleets and less-than truckload operations.
The company chose Texas for self-driving tests because the state has a lot freight, good weather and supportive regulators, Urtasun explained. He added that Texas had become “ground zero” of the self-driving vehicle.
Waabi has a big day today! We have closed our Series B round of funding with a total amount of $200M (USD). This is a big step on our journey to deployment of fully autonomous, generative AI powered trucks in 2025.
Read more here: https://t.co/1LX9Il1D7I — Waabi (@Waabi_ai) June 18, 2024
Waabi insists that its self-driving system is different. Urtasun stated in a blog post published on June 18 that he had pursued a vision for a single AI that could learn from end to end how to perform highly complex tasks in a safe and autonomous manner. “AI systems that operate in the physical world need to be able generalize to a wide range of situations. This will ensure robust performance for both common scenarios and the long tail of unpredictable ones. These systems must also be extremely efficient and able to run on edge devices where computational resources are limited.
Urtasun informed TT that Waabi uses a computing platform which integrates Nvidia Drive Thor in its Waabi Driver System.
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Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said: “I am excited to support Raquel’s vision through our investment into Waabi which is powered by Nvidia’s technology.” “I have been a champion of Raquel’s pioneering AI work for more than 10 years. Her determination to solve the impossible was an inspiration.”
Nvidia’s market value has soared in recent months, reaching $3.334 trillion on June 18 – making it more valuable that both Microsoft and Apple.
Uber Freight is the parent company. announced in September that Waabi Driver would be paired with Uber Freight’s logistics platform and marketplace to deliver a driver-as a service solution. Uber Freight ranks No. Transport Topics Top 100 List of North America’s largest logistics companies ranks Uber Freight No. 13.
“Raquel has a great vision in this field, and under her leadership Waabi’s AI first approach provides a solution which is both scalable and capital efficient,” Uber CEO Dara Khorowshahi stated.
Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group was sold to Aurora Innovation at the beginning of 2021. Uber ATG included Otto – the self-driving vehicle startup it acquired in 2016. Urtasun worked as chief scientist at Uber ATG prior to launching Waabi.
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