Self-driving truck startup Waabi has revealed a new autonomous truck developed in partnership with Volvo, known as the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck. This announcement follows Waabi’s earlier collaboration with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to create a custom truck based on Volvo’s autonomous platform, integrating Waabi’s software stack.
Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun stated that the company aims to commercialize self-driving trucks without the need for a human safety driver or observer, challenging competitors like Aurora, which introduced a commercial driverless service but later added a human observer.
Urtasun highlighted Waabi’s ability to operate on generalized surface streets in Texas currently, with plans for expansion across the United States in the coming years. Waabi’s self-driving system, the Waabi Driver, utilizes an end-to-end AI model enabling autonomous driving on various terrains, including highways and general surface streets, to support scalable commercial operations within existing logistics systems.
By leveraging Volvo’s VNL truck enhanced with Waabi’s technology, including sensor suite, computing capabilities, and the Waabi Driver software, the collaboration aims to deliver a safe and efficient autonomous driving solution for the transport industry.
Source: TechCrunch