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The physics-based AI driving platform Waabi announced on its official website that it has received a $200 million investment, led by global well-known companies such as NVIDIA, Volvo, Porsche, and Uber. As an AI platform that obtained level 4 autonomous driving permission in just 3 years since its establishment, what exactly is its charm? This is our 16th issue, enjoy!
Recently, AI driving manufacturer Waabi announced on its official website that it has successfully raised $200 million in funding, with investors including globally renowned companies such as NVIDIA, Volvo, Porsche, and Uber. This combination of “large investment + leading companies” also signifies the high recognition and support of autonomous driving technology by top global enterprises.
Xiaopeng Motors founder He Xiaopeng predicted after test driving Tesla FSD: “2025 will be the moment of fully autonomous driving with ChatGPT.” The rapid development of autonomous driving technology may bring us a new era of transportation.
Quick Overview of the Project:
Project Name: Waabi Driver
Established: 2021
Product Introduction: Waabi Driver focuses on next-generation autonomous truck technology, driven by generative AI. It offers a complete solution for factory-level OEM integration, large-scale commercialization, and secure deployment with an end-to-end trained AI stack and an interpretable architecture.
Founder Team:
CEO: Raquel Urtasun
SSE: Jur van den Berg
CCO: Vivian Sun
Funding Situation: Since its establishment in 2021, Waabi’s total funding for Series A has reached $280 million. In January 2023, it completed a Series A funding from Volvo Group Venture Capital. In June 2024, Waabi announced the completion of a $200 million Series B funding, led by Uber and Khosla Ventures.
02. Pioneer in Autonomous Driving Technology
The name “Waabi” comes from an indigenous language in Canada, meaning “wisdom.” Just as the company’s original intention is to promote the development of autonomous driving technology and achieve a mission of safer, more efficient, and environmentally friendly logistics transportation.
After founding Waabi, Raquel Urtasun quickly assembled a team of top innovators, engineers, and solution architects in the AI field, dedicated to pushing Waabi’s autonomous driving technology to new heights and achieving technological breakthroughs and innovations.
Waabi’s in-house Generative AI technology can generate new data samples to train autonomous driving systems to make decisions in various complex and unknown environments. Compared to traditional autonomous driving technology, Waabi’s Generative AI technology is safer, more efficient, and more scalable.
The application of this technology allows Waabi’s autonomous driving system to learn and adapt to various driving scenarios without human intervention.
Waabi’s autonomous driving technology is not only a technological breakthrough but also a profound reflection on the future of transportation. With the continuous maturity of technology and the gradual opening of the market, Waabi is at the forefront of the autonomous driving technology revolution, driving the industry’s development.
03. Leading the New Era of Autonomous Driving Technology
Waabi’s core technology is based on a virtual world simulator called “Waabi World.” It combines advanced machine learning and deep learning algorithms to simulate various complex driving scenarios, including different weather conditions, road conditions, and traffic situations. This allows the autonomous driving system to train and test in a safe and controlled environment, enhancing its ability to handle real road conditions.
Waabi has developed an end-to-end large model, Copilot4D, which can simulate human intelligence, reasoning, and driving habits. The model requires fewer training data and computational resources compared to traditional automated driving solutions, while significantly improving safety and environmental detection.
Perhaps, as Raquel Urtasun said, “autonomous trucks have the potential to change the logistics world, save many lives, and provide a more sustainable future.” And Waabi is turning this commitment into reality.
She also mentioned that the new funding will be invested in developing fully autonomous generative AI-driven trucks. “This round of funding provides us with everything we need, including funding and strategic support, allowing us to launch fully autonomous trucks in 2025 and accelerate development,” Urtasun added. Waabi hopes that their AI applications will eventually surpass truck transportation, including applications in humanoid robots and warehouse robots, marking a milestone for the transportation industry and signaling the beginning of the next frontier of AI.
04. Generative AI in the Physical World
With the remarkable progress of artificial intelligence, the digital revolution is taking place worldwide. The ever-expanding data repository and breakthrough accelerated computing stimulate the enormous development and upgrade of basic models. These Generative AI technologies have changed the production efficiency of many industries and even revolutionized human experiences in the digital domain.
Waabi not only sees the good development status of artificial intelligence in the digital domain but also identifies the untapped potential within artificial intelligence. Waabi believes that through their efforts, they can achieve a leap from the virtual world to the physical world for Generative AI, unleashing unprecedented efficiency in artificial intelligence that ensures safety and interacts with humans in daily life.
Of course, challenges are also coming. This new field requires unique and innovative methods to build AI systems.
And Waabi is well aware of the challenges it faces now and in the future. Starting with autonomous driving, the company aims to eventually achieve an AI system that can learn end-to-end and execute highly complex tasks in a fully autonomous and safe manner. Based on this vision, and considering the pain points of low supply chain efficiency and truck driver shortages in the logistics industry, it has chosen to start from here.
To date, the company’s new generation basic models – the virtual driver Waabi and the high-fidelity closed-loop simulator Waabi World – have been applied in commercial transportation in North America.
But Waabi is not satisfied with the current state, and it is precisely because of its disruptive approach and ambitious vision that more and more pioneers and trailblazers in deep technology, automotive, and shipping and logistics ecosystems are willing to provide it with funding and technical assistance.
In the future, as the flexibility and general capabilities of Waabi product technology gradually improve, various types of humanoid and warehouse robots will continue to be iteratively upgraded. This will completely revolutionize the physical world and endow humanity with immeasurable capabilities in an extraordinary way.
Reference link:
1. https://waabi.ai/
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