Waabi's Raquel Urtasun on Level-4 Autonomous Trucks and the Road Ahead

Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of autonomous trucking startup Waabi, has navigated the ups and downs of the self-driving industry for over a decade. After years of skepticism and failed promises, she says the sector is finally experiencing an ‘aha moment’ thanks to advances in AI that allow for scalable, verifiable systems. Waabi’s approach, which she calls ‘AV 2.0’, moves away from hand-engineered components to a neural network that can reason and generalize, making autonomy a commercial reality.

Waabi has already integrated its ‘Waabi Driver’ into Volvo’s VNL Autonomous truck and raised $750 million to expand into robotaxis. Urtasun emphasizes that safety is paramount, especially when carrying 80,000 pounds of cargo. By partnering with OEMs on redundant platforms and using a simulation-first strategy, Waabi aims to prove real-world safety without relying on millions of road miles.

Addressing concerns about job displacement, Urtasun argues that adoption will be gradual, creating new roles in remote operations and terminal management. She also highlights the moral imperative of reducing the 2 million annual global road deaths, noting that human error causes 90-96% of accidents. With its multi-sensor setup and interpretable AI, Waabi is positioning itself as a leader in Level-4 solutions, challenging rivals like Tesla’s camera-only approach.