"To that end, Waabi has raised $1 billion, including $750 million in an oversubscribed Series C round led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, along with additional capital from Uber specifically tied to robotaxi development. As part of the agreement, Waabi plans to deploy a minimum of 25,000 robotaxis powered by its technology on Uber's platform. In an interview, Urtasun emphasized that the number of robotaxis is a floor rather than a ceiling."
"Raquel Urtasun, the former chief scientist at Uber's now defunct Advanced Technologies Group, founded Waabi in 2021 to be a more " AI-centric approach " to autonomous vehicles. That approach initially focused on trucking, with Waabi using its proprietary software to automate driving on commercial delivery routes in Texas. But with self-driving trucks turning out to be a way harder problem than originally thought, and robotaxis seemingly having their own moment, Waabi is now turning its focus to autonomous rideshare vehicles as a demonstration of its "physical AI" prowess."
""So massive, massive partnership as you can see here," she said. "It really brings the next level of scale to the robotaxi market.""
Waabi is expanding from autonomous trucking into robotaxis, leveraging an AI-centric approach developed since its 2021 founding by Raquel Urtasun. The company initially focused on automating commercial delivery routes in Texas but shifted emphasis as self-driving trucks proved more difficult than anticipated and robotaxis gained momentum. Waabi secured $1 billion in new funding, including $750 million in an oversubscribed Series C led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, plus additional capital from Uber tied to robotaxi development. Waabi will deploy a minimum of 25,000 robotaxis on Uber’s platform, with that number described as a floor.
Read at The Verge
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