Internship
Develops self-driving technology for trucking
$34 - $60/hr
Toronto, ON, Canada + 1 more
More locations: San Francisco, CA, USA
Hybrid role; candidates must be based in Toronto, Canada, or San Francisco, California, with some in-office days required.
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Waabi focuses on developing self-driving technology specifically for the trucking industry. Their main product, the Waabi Driver, is designed to learn from experiences, adapt to new situations, and work with various hardware setups. This technology aims for large-scale use and is intended for integration into vehicles by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). A key feature that sets Waabi apart from competitors is its use of Waabi World, an advanced simulation environment that allows for efficient development of their self-driving systems. This reduces the need for extensive real-world testing, which can be costly and time-consuming, while also improving safety and adaptability. Waabi's goal is to transform the trucking industry by providing technology that lowers operational costs and enhances safety for commercial vehicles. They generate revenue by licensing their self-driving technology to trucking companies and OEMs.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Series B
Total Funding
$273.3M
Headquarters
Toronto, Canada
Founded
2021
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Plus and Tier IV Partner to Advance Autonomy 2.0 in Japan(Photo: Plus/Tier IV). Plus, an AI-based autonomous trucking software provider, and Tier IV, the world’s first open-source software for autonomous driving, announced a strategic partnership to develop autonomous driving solutions in Japan. The solution is slated to start with Level 4 autonomous trucks on Japan’s expressways and includes support from a Japanese government-led initiative to expedite the development of autonomous driving technologies, aimed at addressing the country’s critical driver shortage.A recent study by the Nomura Research Institute said there was a 36% shortfall in Japanese truck drivers in 2023. This led the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to develop a project to create autonomous trucks based on vehicles from Japanese vehicle manufacturers.As part of the partnership, a new customized solution will integrate Plus’ end-to-end virtual driver AI model with Tier IV’s Autoware-based platform to meet the autonomous driving requirements of the Japanese market. This is part of Plus’ existing partnerships and expansion in the United States and Europe.Tier IV CEO Shinpei Kato said in a news release: “We’ve always believed that co-creation with our partners is the fastest way to bring the best autonomous driving systems to the world. Plus is a global autonomous driving software company that’s already powering the Level 4 autonomous trucks of leading truck makers in the United States and Europe, like TRATON GROUP’s Scania, MAN and International, Iveco Group, as well as Hyundai
Founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun calls on all AV developers to demonstrate their simulators are true to life
Raquel Urtasun, founder of Waabi, an AI-driven autonomous trucking startup, has raised nearly €270 million, with backing from Uber and Nvidia. Waabi, based in Toronto, focuses on AI simulation for safe autonomous driving. The company secured €79.5 million in Series A funding and €190 million in a subsequent round, attracting investors like Khosla Ventures, Ingka Investments, and Volvo Group. Urtasun emphasizes transforming the world over selling the company.
Toronto-based autonomous truck technology maker Waabi announced a strategic partnership on Tuesday with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks. The partnership is twofold, combining Waabi’s innovations in generative AI with Volvo’s autonomous truck, the Volvo VNL Autonomous.The vertical integration comes in the form of integrating Waabi’s virtual driver system, the Waabi Driver, into the Volvo autonomous truck, which has redundant systems for safe autonomous operations. FreightWaves spoke with Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi, about the partnership. The first thing to note is this is not a retrofit, but a vertical integration: These trucks will come off the factory line fully equipped and ready.“We don’t believe that retrofit is an option for that redundant platform; we believe that our technology, and any AV player for that matter, should be vertically integrated into a redundant platform that is purposefully built for self-driving,” said Urtasun. While Volvo handles the tractor, Waabi has been cooking up its Waabi Driver, part of the next generation of autonomous vehicle progression called AV 2.0. AV 2.0 and autonomous trucking’s Kitty Hawk momentThe best way to understand AV 2.0 and what that means for autonomous trucking is to first understand what AV 1.0 did.“If you look at the industry, there was a generation of technology, what we call AV 1.0, which is a more traditional approach that is some engineered systems where there is AI on them but AI plays a very secondary role,” said Urtasun.She adds that one way to imagine AV 1.0 is smaller AI models all over the place, but there’s a system managed by humans requiring large teams to develop, necessitating many miles to see the next set of edge cases that the system can’t handle. More miles, that is followed by building a bigger dataset, but it’s very capital-intensive and time-consuming, resembling a tedious iteration. The past two years brought about the next evolution, AV 2.0: “this idea of you can have a single AI system that can do all the tests necessary for driving,” adds Urtasun. A parallel that she notes is to imagine having a large language model (LLM) that can engineer a system, versus having to manually program it in the past.With great power comes great computing responsibility. One reason Nvidia has recently been in trucking news is that its computer hardware is powering the AV 2.0 renaissance
CEO says deal gives Waabi next puzzle piece it needs for autonomous trucking at scale