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More self-driving trucks are coming to Texas next year, as Canadian startup Waabi is getting ready to put its artificial intelligence-powered fleet on the road.
Waabi is one of just a handful of autonomous vehicle companies that have taken an AI-first approach to tackling self-driving vehicles, relying on a generative AI model to predict how vehicles move. Like generator tools such as OpenAI’s DALL-E, Waabi takes data gathered by lidar to create a map of its surroundings before breaking down that information to predict how vehicles will move in the very near future.
Unlike rivals like Waymo or Tesla, Waabi doesn’t rely on the time and cost-heavy method of operating a fleet of cars collecting data by driving millions of miles on public roads. Rather, it uses a simulation — Waabi World — to test scenarios at scale and predict results. The Toronto-based company says its AI system is capable of “human-like” reasoning, which lets it generalize common scenarios.
“We have everything we need — breakthrough technology, an incredible team, and pioneering partners and investors — to launch fully driverless autonomous trucks in 2025,” CEO and founder Raquel Urtasun said. “This is monumental for the industry and truly marks the beginning of the next frontier for AI.”
Last month, Waabi signed a multi-year lease on a trucking terminal in Texas’s Dallas County, which will be the base for its operations in the state. The company first entered the Lone Star state in 2023, making trips between Dallas and Houston through its partnership with Uber Freight.
Urtasun said the projected 2025 launch will be in Texas, which has become a major playground for autonomous vehicle startups thanks to its friendly regulatory policies. As of November, the state hosted at least 15 companies in that space. Texas has also partnered with Cavnue to pilot the U.S.’s first autonomous freight corridor on a stretch of Texas State Highway 130 north of Austin.
Waabi on Tuesday also announced the results of its Series B funding round, which drew $200 million from a series of “best-in-class” investors like Nvidia, Khosla Ventures, Uber, and IKEA’s Ingka Investments. The new funding will go toward advancing Waabi’s commercial operations and expanding its North American teams.
“Waabi is developing autonomous trucking by applying cutting-edge generative AI to the physical world,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. “I’m excited to support Raquel’s vision through our investment in Waabi, which is powered by NVIDIA technology.”
Although Waabi is first and foremost an autonomous truck startup, Urtasun doesn’t plan on stopping there. The freight industry was a great place to start, Urtasun explained, pointing to staggering rates of turnover among truck drivers.
“But we can do much more and we intend to do more,” Urtasun said. “By ‘more’ I mean things like humanoid [robots], drones, potentially robotaxis and other things in the future. There is nothing in the technology that is specific to only trucks.”