Self-driving truck startup Waabi on Tuesday shared at TechCrunch Disrupt the launch of its new self-driving truck, the Volvo VNL Autonomous Truck, built in partnership with Volvo.
The announcement comes eight months after the Uber and Nvidia-backed startup announced it would partner with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to use Waabi's software stack to build custom-made trucks based on Volvo's self-driving platform.
Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun said at TechCrunch Disrupt's AI stage that the company could be the first to commercialize self-driving trucks without human safety drivers or supervisors. The comment was a bit of a criticism of competitor Aurora, which launched commercial self-driving services earlier this year. The company added human observers in the truck cabs a few weeks later.
“Currently, you can drive on regular roads in Texas, but you'll be seeing us across the United States for the next few years,” said Urtasun, who was chief scientist at Uber ATG before launching Waabi in 2021.
Warbi's rival Aurora has a similar deal with Volvo, and the two companies announced self-driving trucks in May 2024. Aurora began commercial service with human observers on routes between Dallas and Houston earlier this year, and announced Tuesday it would expand to El Paso. Waabi uses the same truck, but features Waabi's technology, including the sensor suite, computing, and Waabi Driver software.
Waabi's self-driving system, called Waabi Driver, is an end-to-end AI model that allows trucks to scale autonomous driving across different regions, including highways and roads. Waabi says this will enable commercial operations to be scalable, meet customer needs and work within existing logistics operations.
“Volvo VNL is built from the ground up with redundancy in mind, allowing us to eliminate human drivers and build a locally safe product,” Urtasun said. “Our sensor poles are extremely lightweight, making them very easy to integrate on the factory line.”
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Waabi's partnership with Volvo builds on its investment in startups in 2023 through the automaker's venture arm, Volvo Group Venture Capital. Volvo participated in Warbi's $200 million Series B in 2024.
Description: Aurora did not initially enter commercial service with a human observer in the driver's seat.