Self-driving truck startup Waabi has announced a partnership with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks, a crucial step towards its commercial launch. This collaboration marks Volvo's second partnership with a startup to co-develop self-driving big rigs, following its May 2024 partnership with Aurora Innovation to unveil the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck.

Waabi will utilize the same truck as Volvo, but with its own technology, including its sensor suite, compute, and Waabi Driver software. According to Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi, this partnership provides the necessary components to scale their product. "We now have everything we need to scale our product," Urtasun stated. "We have the next-generation AV 2.0 technology, we have an approach that is much more capital efficient, and a much faster path to market."

Waabi plans to launch commercial pilots with the Volvo-built trucks in Texas over the next couple of months, with a product-ready driverless demonstration on public roads scheduled for the end of 2025. A fully driverless commercial launch, which will operate directly between customer depots, is expected to follow shortly after. Urtasun, who previously served as chief scientist at Uber ATG, claims to have developed AI models that can reason as humans do, enabling faster commercial deployment and a more efficient system overall.

Waabi's approach to autonomous trucking differs from its competitors. Unlike Kodiak Robotics, which has developed a self-driving system that includes redundant hardware and software systems and is not tied to one manufacturer, Waabi is focused on integrating its Waabi Driver into autonomous trucks at the factory level with no interruption to an OEM's assembly line. Urtasun believes this approach is essential for building a safe and reliable product.

The partnership between Waabi and Volvo builds upon the automaker's strategic investment in the startup two years ago via its venture arm, Volvo Group Venture Capital. Volvo later participated in Waabi's $200 million Series B funding round. The automaker will manufacture trucks for Waabi at its production-ready facility in Virginia, with the first batch expected to roll off the assembly line in 2025. Urtasun anticipates a timeline of around two to three years to reach volume scale.

Capital efficiency will be crucial for success in the autonomous trucking industry, according to Urtasun. Waabi's "AI-first approach" means the startup's capital needs to achieve a driverless launch will be significantly lower than its competitors. To date, Waabi has raised $282 million, compared to its main competitors, Aurora and Kodiak, which have raised $3.46 billion and $243 million, respectively.

The autonomous trucking industry is expected to see significant developments in 2025, with Aurora planning to launch a driverless commercial trucking operation by April and Kodiak having recently delivered its first autonomous trucks to a commercial partner. Urtasun predicts that 2025 will be a "make it or break it" year for the industry, potentially leading to consolidation among players. However, Waabi has no plans to consider mergers or acquisitions, with Urtasun stating, "Trucking is only the beginning. We're going to do so much more than trucking – robotaxis, warehouse robotics. I have tremendously big plans for the company, and we are going to remain a fully independent company."

With this partnership, Waabi takes a significant step towards commercializing its autonomous trucking technology, marking an important milestone in the development of the autonomous vehicle industry.