Self-driving truck startup Waabi shared Tuesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 the launch of a brand new autonomous truck made in partnership with Volvo, the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck.
The disclosing comes eight months because the Uber- and Nvidia-backed startup introduced it was partnering with Volvo Autonomous Options to construct a customized truck based mostly on Volvo’s autonomy platform utilizing Waabi’s software program stack.
Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun mentioned on TechCrunch Disrupt’s AI stage the corporate has the potential to be the primary to commercialize self-driving vans and not using a human security driver or observer. The remark was a slight dig at Aurora, a competitor that launched a industrial driverless service earlier this yr. The corporate later added a human observer within the truck cab a number of weeks later.
“We are able to drive in generalized floor streets throughout proper now in Texas, and it is possible for you to to see us throughout your complete U.S. over the subsequent few years as properly,” mentioned Urtasun, who beforehand served as chief scientist at Uber ATG earlier than launching Waabi in 2021.
Waabi rival Aurora has the same cope with Volvo, and the 2 corporations unveiled a self-driving truck in Might 2024. Aurora launched a industrial service, which has a human observer on board, earlier this yr on a route between Dallas and Houston. On Tuesday, it introduced it was increasing to El Paso. Waabi is utilizing the identical truck, however it options Waabi’s tech, together with its sensor suite, compute, and the Waabi Driver software program.
Waabi’s self-driving system referred to as the Waabi Driver is an end-to-end AI mannequin that permits the truck to scale autonomous driving throughout completely different geographies, together with highways and normal floor streets. Waabi says this permits industrial operations which can be scalable, meet the wants of shoppers, and work inside present logistics operations.
“Volvo VNL has been constructed from the bottom up for the redundancies with the intention to take away the human driver and you may construct an area, secure product,” Urtasun mentioned. “Our sensor poles are tremendous light-weight; it’s very straightforward to combine on the manufacturing unit line.”
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
Waabi’s partnership with Volvo builds on the automaker’s funding into the startup in 2023 by way of its enterprise arm, Volvo Group Enterprise Capital. Volvo participated in Waabi’s $200 million Collection B in 2024.
Clarification: Aurora didn’t initially launch its industrial service with a human observer within the cab.
