Waabi

Waabi is an artificial intelligence company developing self-driving technology. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company was founded and is led by Raquel Urtasun, a University of Toronto professor and formerly chief scientist and head of research and development at Uber's Advanced Technologies Group.[1][2]

History

Waabi was founded in 2021, with a focus on developing self-driving technology modeled after the human brain.[2][3] Waabi means "she has vision" in Ojibwe and "simple" in Japanese.[2]

In 2023, the company partnered with Uber Freight on a fleet of autonomous trucks to make commercial deliveries, starting between Dallas and Houston, with a safety driver at the wheel.[1][4] In March 2024, Waabi and Nvidia announced a partnership to use the vehicle computing platform Nvidia Drive for generative AI-powered self-driving applications.[5]

In February 2025, Waabi announced a collaboration with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy self-driving technology in Volvo's long-haul trucks.[6] In October 2025, Waabi and Volvo announced the launch of the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck, which integrates Waabi Driver into Volvo's existing autonomous truck technology.[7]

In August 2025, former Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron joined Waabi as COO.[4] He and Urtasun previously worked together for several years at Uber.[8]

In January 2026, Waabi announced a partnership with Uber to deploy 25,000 robotaxis on Uber's platform.[9]

Technology

Waabi has developed an end-to-end AI system for autonomous vehicles.[10] Rather than build systems that would require a large amount of road testing, the company created a simulator that can carry out complex reasoning and learn at scale.[1] According to Urtasun, Waabi began with a focus on long-haul trucking due to the shortage of truck drivers and to address safety concerns in that field.[11]

Waabi World is a simulator launched in 2022.[12] Its closed-loop simulator generates scenarios a self-driving vehicle could encounter in the real world, reducing costs and the amount of real-world testing needed.[1][13]

The Waabi Driver is the company's virtual driving system of software, sensors, and hardware. The company's Mixed Reality Testing enables Waabi Driver to drive autonomously down a physical test track while experiencing simulated real-world scenarios.[14]

Funding

On June 8, 2021, it was reported that Waabi had raised $83.5 million USD in a series A funding round led by Khosla Ventures, at the time the largest series A funding round in Canadian history.[15][16] On June 18, 2024, Waabi announced that it had raised an additional $200 million USD in a series B funding round led by Uber and Khosla Ventures.[8][13] On January 28, 2026, Waabi announced that it had raised an additional $1 billion ($750 million in a series C funding round, led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, and a new $250 million investment from Uber related to robotaxi deployment).[17]