Waabi Partners with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to Develop Autonomous Trucks

Waabi, a self-driving truck startup, has partnered with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks. This partnership marks an important milestone for Waabi as it gets closer to a commercial launch.

Volvo’s Second Partnership for Self-Driving Big Rigs

The tie-up also marks Volvo’s second partnership to co-develop self-driving big rigs with a startup partner. In May 2024, Volvo teamed up with Aurora Innovation to reveal the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck.

Waabi’s Autonomous Truck Technology

Waabi will be using the same truck, but it will have Waabi’s tech on it, including its sensor suite, compute, and the Waabi Driver software. This technology is designed to enable the truck to operate autonomously, with Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi, stating that the company has everything it needs to scale its product.

Commercial Launch Plans

Waabi plans to launch commercial pilots with the Volvo-built trucks in Texas over the next couple of months, with a product-ready driverless demonstration on public roads planned for the end of 2025. A fully driverless commercial launch – directly between customer depots from day one, rather than via terminals – will follow soon afterwards.

AI-Driven Technology

Urtasun claims to have built AI models that can reason as a human would, which in turn speeds up commercial deployment and makes for a more efficient system overall. She believes that a better quality AI will require much less data and compute to understand and react to the world around it.

Simulation Technology

Waabi has relied on its simulation technology to not just test and train its self-driving technology, but also to help design trucks for OEM integration. The startup unveiled its first purpose-built truck – with sensors, compute, and software built in at the assembly line – in 2022.

Integration with OEMs

By contrast, competitor Kodiak Robotics has developed a self-driving system that includes all of the redundant hardware and software system, but is not tied to one manufacturer. Urtasun is more interested in integrating the Waabi Driver into autonomous trucks at the factory level with no interruption to an OEM’s assembly line, which she believes is the best approach to building a safe, reliable product.

Partnership with Volvo

Waabi’s partnership with Volvo builds on the automaker’s strategic investment into the startup two years ago via its venture arm, Volvo Group Venture Capital. Volvo later participated in Waabi’s $200 million Series B funding round.

Production and Timeline

Volvo will build trucks for Waabi at its production-ready facility in Virginia. Urtasun said the first "handful" would come off the assembly line in 2025, and that she expects a timeline of around two to three years to reach volume scale.

Capital Efficiency

Over that time, Urtasun also noted that capital efficiency will be "an absolute must" to be successful in this industry. She says Waabi’s "AI-first approach" means the startup’s capital needs to get to a driverless launch will be "a tiny fraction of what you see in the industry today."

Comparison with Competitors

To date, Waabi has raised $282 million, per PitchBook data, and Urtasun says the startup has enough to launch a driverless operation on public roads and beyond. Its main competitors, Aurora and Kodiak, have raised $3.46 billion and $243 million, respectively.

Industry Outlook

Aurora plans to launch a driverless commercial trucking operation by April, and Kodiak last month delivered its first autonomous trucks to a commercial partner that will use them for off-road operations. Urtasun believes that 2025 is the year of trucking, and that there will be potentially more consolidation in the industry.

Waabi’s Future Plans

Urtasun believes that Waabi is not just a trucking company, but a robotics company that will do so much more than trucking – robotaxis, warehouse robotics. She has tremendously big plans for the company, and she is committed to remaining a fully independent company.