US Startup Waabi Partners with Volvo to Scale Production of Self-Driving Trucks
Autonomous trucks company Waabi and Volvo Autonomous Solutions have teamed up to manufacture and deploy self-driving trucks. This new partnership marks an important milestone towards the launch of commercial autonomous trucks.
Waabi and Volvo self-driving trucks partnership is the second for Volvo, TechCrunch reported. Last year, Volvo partnered with Aurora Innovation to launch the Volvo VNL self-driving truck.
Waabi Technology
Waabi is working towards launching commercial pilots with Volvo trucks in the coming few months. The company will launch the pilots in Texas first. The autonomous trucks startup plans to have a product-ready self-driving demo on public roads by the end of 2025.
In the new partnership, Waabi says it will be using the same truck. However, the truck will run on Waabi AI trucking technology which includes the Waabi driver software, the sensor suite, and compute.
“We now have everything we need to scale our product. We have the next-generation AV 2.0 technology, we have an approach that is much more capital efficient, and a much faster path to market,” Waabi CEO and Founder Raquel Urtasun said.
The Waabi founder says his startup will conduct a full autonomous commercial launch soon after running the product-ready self-driving demo. Urtasun indicated that the launch will be done between customer deports and not through terminals.
AI Models
Waabi says that it has developed AI models that are capable of reasoning like humans. This, according to Urtasun, is what speeds up Waabi’s commercial deployment plans and makes its self-driving technology more efficient. Urtasun holds that high quality AI requires less computation and data to understand and respond to occurrences around it.
Waabi has been using simulation technology to train and test its autonomous driving technology. The startup has also been using simulation technology to design its trucks for OEM integration. Waabi launched its initial purpose-built truck in 2022. The startup’s first truck came with in-built compute, sensors, and software. Urtasun launched Waabi in 2021. Before that, she worked at Uber ATG as the chief scientist.
Waabi’s rival Kodiak Robotics has developed an autonomous driving system that features redundant software and hardware systems. However, Kodiak’s systment is not tied to a single manufacturer. Waabi on the other hand, is focused on integrating its self-driving technology into autonomous trucks during manufacturing but without interrupting the OEM assembly line. Urtasun sees this option as the best for developing a safe and reliable product.
Strategic Investment
The Volvo self-driving truck collaboration with Waabi builds on previous strategic investment that the automaker made in the startup two years ago. Through a venture unit dubbed Volvo Group Venture Capital, the giant auto maker participated in a Series B funding round through which Waabi raised $200 million. To date, the self-driving trucks startup has raised $282 million, which its founder says is sufficient to launch autonomous truck operations on public roads.
The new partnership will see Volvo manufacture trucks for Waabi at its Virginia plant. The first delivery will be released from the plant’s assembly line this year. Urtasun expects production volumes to reach scale level within two or three years. Urtasun said that her startup is not considering acquisition or merger.
“Trucking is only the beginning. 2025 is the year of trucking; it’s a make it or break it situation. I think there will be potentially more consolidation We’re going to do so much more than trucking – robotaxis, warehouse robotics. I have tremendously big plans for the company, and we are going to remain a fully independent company,” she said
Waabi faces competition from Kodiak and Aurora, which have raised $243 million and $3,46 billion respectively. Aurora is already working towards unveiling driverless commercial trucks by April this year. Last month, Kodiak made its debut autonomous truck delivery to a commercial partner for use in off-road operations.
