Autonomous driving startup Waabi is teaming up with Volvo Autonomous Options to collaboratively develop and deploy autonomous vans. This partnership merges Waabi’s progressive generative AI expertise with Volvo’s experience in automation and security, aiming to revolutionize the trucking trade and create a brand new customary for safer, extra environment friendly, and sustainable freight transportation.
As a part of this collaboration, Waabi’s digital driver system, often called the Waabi Driver, might be built-in into the Volvo VNL Autonomous—Volvo’s autonomous truck designed with redundant programs to make sure secure operations. The Volvo VNL Autonomous might be manufactured at Volvo’s major meeting facility in New River Valley and is constructed on the corporate’s autonomous expertise platform, which is adaptable to varied operational wants and use circumstances throughout totally different Volvo Group truck manufacturers.
This initiative seeks to remodel the $1 trillion North American freight sector by facilitating the introduction of autonomous vans that set new benchmarks for security and effectivity. Each Waabi and Volvo are devoted to growing transportation options that prioritize security, effectivity, and sustainability, addressing the present challenges throughout the transportation trade.
Waabi’s next-generation AV2.0 strategy makes use of a complete, interpretable, and verifiable AI mannequin, supported by a particularly sensible neural simulator. This allows autonomous vans to soundly navigate various eventualities encountered on the highway. Coupled with Volvo’s state-of-the-art, purpose-built autonomous truck, this innovation paves the best way for a viable and secure autonomous answer for widespread business deployment.
“At Waabi, we consider that incorporating next-generation AI expertise immediately into an OEM’s automobile manufacturing is the important thing to bringing secure and sturdy autonomous automobiles to the market at scale,” said Raquel Urtasun, Founder and CEO of Waabi. “Volvo’s management in security, dedication to engineering excellence, and funding in progressive options make them a perfect associate in realizing the way forward for self-driving vans.”
Shahrukh Kazmi, Chief Product Officer at Volvo Autonomous Options, remarked, “Waabi is main the cost in self-driving expertise by harnessing the complete potential of AI. We look ahead to integrating Waabi’s superior expertise into our autonomous truck platform and collaborating to develop a secure, environment friendly, and scalable transport answer.”
This partnership builds on the present collaboration between Volvo and Waabi that has developed over the previous two years. Volvo Group Enterprise Capital turned a strategic investor in Waabi in January 2023 and took part within the firm’s $200 million Sequence B funding spherical. The groundwork for integrating the Waabi Driver into the Volvo VNL Autonomous has been established, with testing set to begin in 2025.
February 16, 2025
Blagojce Krivevski
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