Waabi Unveils Autonomous Truck Made In Partnership With Volvo

Self-driving motortruck startup Waabi shared Tuesday astatine TechCrunch Disrupt nan motorboat of a caller autonomous motortruck made successful business pinch Volvo, nan Volvo VNL Autonomous truck.

The unveiling comes 8 months since nan Uber- and Nvidia-backed startup announced it was partnering pinch Volvo Autonomous Solutions to build a custom-built motortruck based connected Volvo’s autonomy level utilizing Waabi’s package stack.

Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun said connected TechCrunch Disrupt’s AI shape nan institution has nan imaginable to beryllium nan first to commercialize self-driving trucks without a quality information driver aliases observer. The remark was a flimsy excavation astatine Aurora, a competitor that launched a commercialized driverless work pinch a quality perceiver successful nan motortruck cab.

“We tin thrust successful generalized aboveground streets crossed correct now successful Texas, and you will beryllium capable to spot america crossed nan full U.S. complete nan adjacent fewer years arsenic well,” said Urtasun, who antecedently served arsenic main intelligence astatine Uber ATG earlier launching Waabi successful 2021.

Waabi rival Aurora has a akin woody pinch Volvo, and nan 2 companies unveiled a self-driving motortruck successful May 2024. Aurora launched a commercialized service, which has a quality perceiver connected board, earlier this twelvemonth connected a way betwixt Dallas and Houston and Tuesday announced it was expanding to El Paso. Waabi is utilizing nan aforesaid truck, but it features Waabi’s tech, including its sensor suite, compute, and nan Waabi Driver software. 

Waabi’s self-driving strategy called nan Waabi Driver is an end-to-end AI exemplary that enables nan motortruck to standard autonomous driving crossed different geographies, including highways and wide aboveground streets. Waabi says this enables commercialized operations that are scalable, meet nan needs of customers, and activity wrong existing logistics operations.  

“Volvo VNL has been built from nan crushed up for nan redundancies truthful that you tin region nan quality driver and you tin build a local, safe product,” Urtasun said. “Our sensor poles are ace lightweight, it’s very easy to merge astatine nan mill line.”

Waabi’s business pinch Volvo builds connected nan automaker’s investment into nan startup successful 2023 via its task arm, Volvo Group Venture Capital. Volvo participated successful Waabi’s $200 cardinal Series B successful 2024.