Autonomous driving company Waabi has raised $200 million in Series C funding,bringing its total funding to approximately $1.28 billion. The round included participation from Uber, Nvidia’s venture arm NVentures, Volvo Group Venture Capital, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, BlackRock, and BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund, among others. This investment will fuel Waabi’s expansion into robotaxis, building on its existing work in autonomous trucking.
Waabi’s Unique Approach to autonomous Driving
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Founded by raquel Urtasun, Waabi differentiates itself through its “Waabi driver,” an AI-powered system designed to reason about its surroundings much like a human driver. This approach allows the system to generalize and learn from fewer examples than conventional autonomous systems, reducing the need for massive datasets and extensive human intervention. Urtasun emphasizes that the Waabi Brain is adaptable to different vehicle types, hinting at future applications in robotics beyond trucking and robotaxis.
From Trucks to Robotaxis: A Strategic Expansion
waabi initially focused on developing technology for highway and surface street trucking, but together collected and simulated data for passenger vehicles, signaling a long-term plan to enter the robotaxi market. The company has already launched commercial pilots with human safety drivers in Texas. A planned fully driverless truck rollout on public highways was delayed from late 2023 to sometime in the next few quarters, as the trucks undergo final validation.
Partnership with Uber and Volvo
The partnership with Uber is a key component of Waabi’s robotaxi strategy. Urtasun believes this collaboration will enable rapid market penetration and scalability.Waabi is also working with Volvo to develop purpose-built autonomous trucks, unveiled at TechCrunch Disrupt in October 2025. The company plans to integrate its sensors and technology directly into vehicles on the factory floor, a strategy Urtasun calls “vertically integrating with a fully redundant platform from the OEM” to ensure safety and scalability.
Cost and Efficiency Advantages
Urtasun asserts that Waabi’s approach allows it to develop technology faster and more affordably than competitors like Aurora Innovation (Aurora Innovation, raised $3.46 billion) and Kodiak Robotics (Kodiak Robotics, raised $448 million). She highlights that Waabi requires less human labor, smaller data centers, lower energy consumption, and fewer advanced chips compared to “AV 1.0” approaches.
Looking Ahead
Urtasun is optimistic about the future of robotaxis,stating,”We’re still in the first innings of deployment of robotaxis. There’s a lot more scale to come.” While details of the Uber rollout, including the automaker partnership, remain undisclosed, Waabi is poised to become a meaningful player in the autonomous vehicle market with its innovative AI-driven technology and strategic partnerships.