Self-driving truck startup Waabi shared Tuesday at TechCrunch Disrupt the launch of a brand new autonomous truck made in partnership with Volvo, the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck.
The revealing comes eight months for the reason that Uber- and Nvidia-backed startup introduced it was partnering with Volvo Autonomous Options to construct a custom-built truck based mostly on Volvo’s autonomy platform utilizing Waabi’s software program stack.
Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun stated on TechCrunch Disrupt’s AI stage the corporate has the potential to be the primary to commercialize self-driving vans with out a human security driver or observer. The remark was a slight dig at Aurora, a competitor that launched a business driverless service with a human observer within the truck cab.
“We are able to drive in generalized floor streets throughout proper now in Texas, and it is possible for you to to see us throughout the complete U.S. over the subsequent few years as nicely,” stated Urtasun, who beforehand served as chief scientist at Uber ATG earlier than launching Waabi in 2021.
Waabi rival Aurora has an identical cope with Volvo, and the 2 corporations unveiled a self-driving truck in Could 2024. Aurora launched a business service, which has a human observer on board, earlier this 12 months on a route between Dallas and Houston and Tuesday introduced it was increasing to El Paso. Waabi is utilizing the identical truck, nevertheless it options Waabi’s tech, together with its sensor suite, compute, and the Waabi Driver software program.
Waabi’s self-driving system referred to as the Waabi Driver is an end-to-end AI mannequin that permits the truck to scale autonomous driving throughout totally different geographies, together with highways and common floor streets. Waabi says this permits business operations which might be scalable, meet the wants of shoppers, and work inside present logistics operations.
“Volvo VNL has been constructed from the bottom up for the redundancies in an effort to take away the human driver and you’ll construct an area, secure product,” Urtasun stated. “Our sensor poles are tremendous light-weight, it’s very simple to combine on the manufacturing unit line.”
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Waabi’s partnership with Volvo builds on the automaker’s funding into the startup in 2023 through its enterprise arm, Volvo Group Enterprise Capital. Volvo participated in Waabi’s $200 million Collection B in 2024.
