Internship

Research Internship/Co-op

Confirmed live in the last 24 hours

Waabi

Waabi

51-200 employees

Develops self-driving technology for trucking

Compensation Overview

$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.

Category
Robotics & Autonomous Systems
AI & Machine Learning
Required Skills
Python
Machine Learning
C/C++
Computer Vision
Requirements
  • Bachelors or MS/PhD degree in Computer Science, Engineering, AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Robotics and/or similar technical field(s) of study.
  • Demonstrated research/software engineering experience: through previous internships, work experience, coding competitions, and/or research projects and papers.
  • Strong quantitative background and coursework in or working knowledge of linear algebra, calculus, and probability.
  • Proficient in reading and coding in Python and/or C++.
  • Open-minded and collaborative team player with willingness to help others.
  • Passionate about self-driving technologies, solving hard problems, and creating innovative solutions.
Responsibilities
  • Be part of a team of multidisciplinary Research Scientists and Engineers using an AI-first approach to enable safe self-driving at scale.
  • Lead or Contribute to an AI research project, pushing the frontiers of the field by developing new algorithms for Autonomous Vehicle (AV). This includes topics such as perception, prediction, motion planning, controls, simulation, mapping, localization, core AI, etc.
  • Design, implement, train, and optimize novel algorithms on self-driving vehicles and various production systems.
  • Be encouraged to submit and publish work externally at top machine learning, computer vision, and robotics conferences (NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, CVPR, etc.), post to our company blog, and release open source projects.

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

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Waabi's €270M funding round shows strong investor confidence in autonomous solutions.
  • Partnership with Volvo enhances Waabi's market reach and technology development.
  • Generative AI in Waabi's solutions boosts adaptability and efficiency in autonomous trucking.

What critics are saying

  • Increased competition from Plus and Tier IV in Japan may challenge Waabi's market share.
  • Reliance on Nvidia's DRIVE OS could pose risks if supply chain issues arise.
  • Partnership with Volvo may limit Waabi's flexibility to collaborate with other OEMs.

What makes Waabi unique

  • Waabi uses advanced simulation technology, Waabi World, to reduce real-world testing miles.
  • The Waabi Driver adapts to new scenarios and geographies, enhancing flexibility.
  • Waabi's vertical integration with OEMs streamlines production and deployment processes.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Flexible Work Hours

Company Equity

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

3%

1 year growth

-2%

2 year growth

1%
FreightWaves
Mar 21st, 2025
Plus And Tier Iv Partner To Tackle Autonomy 2.0 In Japan

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

BetaKit
Mar 12th, 2025
Waabi Develops Realism Metric To Gauge Reliability Of Autonomous Vehicle Simulators

Founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun calls on all AV developers to demonstrate their simulators are true to life

Business Insider
Mar 8th, 2025
Waabi raises €270M with Uber, Nvidia backing

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.

FreightWaves
Feb 4th, 2025
Waabi And Volvo Autonomous Solutions Announce Partnership

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

BetaKit
Feb 4th, 2025
Waabi Inks Partnership With Investor Volvo To Develop And Deploy Self-Driving Trucks

CEO says deal gives Waabi next puzzle piece it needs for autonomous trucking at scale