Autonomous driving startup Waabi has completed a $10 billion funding round and entered into a partnership with Uber to deploy self-driving vehicles on the latter's ride-hailing platform—marking the company's first major expansion beyond the autonomous trucking sector. This funding consists of two parts: an oversubscribed $750 million Series C round co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, and approximately $250 million in milestone-based capital from Uber, designated to support the exclusive deployment of 25,000 or more Waabi-equipped autonomous taxis on Uber's platform. A specific timeline for this large-scale deployment has not been disclosed by either party. This collaboration underscores market confidence in Waabi's AI technology, which is seen as having the potential to succeed where others have faltered—achieving scalable autonomous operations across multiple domains using a single, unified technical architecture. In contrast, competitors like Google's Waymo previously attempted to simultaneously develop both robotaxi and autonomous trucking businesses, ultimately shutting down their freight division. Waabi's founder and CEO, Raquel Urtasun, asserts that the company's capital-efficient operational model and its AI architecture, designed for generalization, provide a unique advantage in tackling both markets concurrently. Urtasun stated in an interview with The Tech Startup, "Our cutting-edge core technology is the first to enable a single solution to cover multiple verticals while achieving scalability in each. We are not building two separate projects with two distinct technical architectures." This partnership also brings Urtasun's career full circle, as she previously served as Chief Scientist at Uber's self-driving unit, the Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), which was sold by Uber to autonomous trucking firm Aurora Innovation in 2020. Furthermore, this deal deepens the existing collaboration between Waabi and Uber Freight. Waabi joins a roster of autonomous vehicle companies partnering with Uber globally, which also includes Waymo, Nuro, Argo AI (now defunct), Via, WeRide, and Momenta. The partnership and Series C funding coincide with Uber establishing a new Autonomous Lab division, which will utilize Uber's own fleet of vehicles to collect data for its autonomous driving partners. According to Urtasun, Waabi is significantly less dependent on real-world data than some competitors. Its autonomous system is trained, tested, and validated within a closed-loop simulation platform called "Waabi World." This platform can automatically construct digital twins of the real world from data, perform real-time sensor simulation, generate diverse scenarios to stress-test the system, and enable the system to learn from mistakes autonomously, without human intervention. Urtasun claims this technology allows Waabi's system to perceive its environment and make optimal driving decisions akin to a human, possessing greater generalization capabilities that require far fewer examples to learn compared to traditional systems. For the past four and a half years, Waabi has focused on applying this technology to autonomous trucks, enabling them to operate on highways and urban roads. However, Urtasun indicated that Waabi's core AI system is adaptable to different vehicle types, even hinting that robotics could be the next vertical the company explores. From its inception, Waabi has been collecting and simulating passenger vehicle data alongside its trucking development, signaling that robotaxis have long been part of its strategic roadmap. Urtasun emphasized that this technological approach allows Waabi to develop faster and at a lower cost, significantly outpacing competitors. She stated, "We don't require the large teams of engineers typical of first-generation autonomous technology, nor do we need massive test fleets; we don't need large data centers, we don't consume vast amounts of energy, and we don't require the latest chips in huge quantities." In June 2024, Waabi closed a $200 million Series B round. Following this latest funding, the company's total raised capital amounts to approximately $12.8 billion. In comparison, competitors Aurora Innovation and Kodiak Robotics have raised $3.46 billion and $448 million, respectively, through venture capital and public market financing to date. Over its five-year history, Waabi has launched several commercial pilot programs with human safety drivers in Texas. The company initially aimed to launch fully driverless trucks on public highways by the end of 2025, but Urtasun revealed this timeline has been pushed back to the coming quarters. Last October, at The Tech Startup's Disrupt conference, Waabi announced a collaboration with Volvo to build custom autonomous trucks. Urtasun noted that Waabi's autonomous driving system is ready; however, the trucks themselves must complete full validation before official launch. Urtasun remains optimistic. She highlighted that Waabi's direct-to-customer business model allows shippers to purchase trucks equipped with its system directly, creating strong demand. She is also confident that the partnership with Uber will help Waabi "rapidly penetrate the market and achieve scale with a highly reliable product." She added, "The commercial deployment of robotaxis is just beginning, and the potential for future scaling is immense." Urtasun did not disclose specific details regarding the partnership's implementation, such as which automaker might be involved. However, she indicated that Waabi will apply the same deployment strategy used for its trucks, integrating its proprietary sensors and technology directly into vehicles from the manufacturing stage. She affirmed, "We firmly believe that partnering with OEMs to create a fully redundant, vertically integrated platform is key to developing safe, truly scalable autonomous technology." Other participants in Waabi's Series C round included Uber, NVIDIA's venture arm, Volvo Group Venture Capital, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, BlackRock, and the Thrive Venture Fund under the Business Development Bank of Canada.
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