Canadian autonomous truck startup Waabi Innovation Inc. announced today that it has raised $200 million in new funding to support its development and deployment of fully driverless, generative artificial intelligence-powered autonomous trucks in 2025.

Founded in 2021, Waabi is developing generative AI-based autonomous driving technology for the transport sector. The company’s “Waabi Driver” self-driving solution is aimed at large-scale commercialization and safe deployment.

Waabi’s single end-to-end AI systems are said to be capable of human-like reasoning, allowing it to understand situations as they occur on the road and at a level the company claims has “never been seen before.” The system differs from other approaches, the company says, thanks to its ability to reason, meaning that it requires significantly less training data and compute resources compared with existing autonomous vehicle solutions.

The autonomous driving system is fully interpretable and its safety can be validated and verified, with Waabi claiming that its functionality is a first across autonomous vehicles and AI systems deployed in the physical world. The AI system, paired with “Waabi World,” an advanced simulator, reduces the need for extensive on-road testing and allows for a safer solution that is scalable from day one.

Waabi technology is currently on pace to reach Level 4 autonomy, which is what the company is aiming for ahead of its planned launch of autonomous trucks in 2025. Level 4 autonomy refers to a system that can operate a vehicle without human intervention in most conditions, but may still require a human to take over in certain complex or unusual situations.

“We have everything we need — breakthrough technology, an incredible team and pioneering partners and investors — to launch fully driverless autonomous trucks in 2025,” Raquel Urtasun (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of Waabi, said in a statement.

The Series B round was led by Uber Technologies Inc. and Khosla Ventures LLC. Other companies and venture capital firms participating in the round included Nvidia Corp., Volvo Group Venture Capital AB, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Scania Invest AB, Ingka Holding B.V., HarbourVest Partners LLC, G2 Venture Partners LLC, BDC Capital Inc.’s Thrive Venture Fund, Export Development Canada, Radical Ventures LP and Incharge Capital Inc.

“Waabi is developing autonomous trucking by applying cutting-edge generative AI to the physical world,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in a statement. “I’m excited to support Raquel’s vision through our investment in Waabi, which is powered by Nvidia technology.”

Including the new funding, Waabi has raised approximately $283.5 million to date, according to data from Tracxn.

Photo: Waabi