Assurance Raises $1B and Adds to Robotaxis and Uber

Autonomous car startup Waabi has raised $1 billion and signed a deal with Uber to use self-driving cars on its platform — the company’s first expansion beyond autonomous driving.

The funding includes a $750 million Series C round led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners and approximately $250 million from Uber to support the deployment of 25,000 or more Waabi Driver-powered robotaxis on its platform. The company did not provide a time frame for mass shipping.

The deal represents a bet that the startup’s AI technology can succeed where others have struggled — expanding multiple self-driving verticals with a single technology stack. While competitors like Waymo have previously experimented with robotaxis and cars before suspending its delivery program, Waabi founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun says her company’s best-in-class strategy and AI architecture offer a unique opportunity to tackle both markets at once.

“Our amazing technology enables, for the first time, a single solution that can do multiple things, and they can do them at scale,” Urtasun told TechCrunch. “It’s not about two programs, two stacks.”

The connection brings together Urtasun’s career: previously he worked as chief scientist at Uber’s autonomous unit, Uber ATG, which Uber sold to self-driving company Aurora Innovation in 2020. It also builds Waabi’s existing partnership is with Uber Freight.

Waabi is one of several AV companies that Uber has brought in to use self-driving cars on its global platform. Some companies include That’s itOnly, Avridewow, WeRide, At the momentetc.

The money transfer system comes in the form of Uber is launching a new division called Uber AV Labs which will use its vehicles to collect data for AV partners.

Waabi does not rely on data like others, like Urtasun should. The Waabi pilot is trained, tested, and certified using a closed-loop simulator called The Word of Water which automatically creates a digital twin of the world from data; conducts real-life experiments; creates Waabi Driver stress test scenarios; and teaches the Operator to learn from his mistakes without human intervention. What’s next? The Waabi driver can consider the surrounding environment like a human and choose the best route, says Urtasun. This allows the system to generate and learn from fewer examples than traditional driving systems.

Waabi has spent four-and-a-half years developing technology for the highway and high-speed roads with cars, but Urtasun says Waabi Brain is already compatible with various automotive products – he also indicated that the company will be vertical. From the beginning, the company collected and compared information about passenger cars along with its cargo service, a sign that robotaxis is always part of the long-term plans.

This approach has allowed Waabi to build faster and cheaper than competitors, Urtasun says.

“We don’t need a gazillion people to develop the technology and large fleets that AV 1.0 needs,” Urtasun said. “We don’t need data centers, power consumption, or the latest chips.”

The deal brings Waabi’s total capital raised to around $1.28 billion closed Series B for $200 million in June 2024. Competitors Aurora Innovation and Kodiak Robotics have raised $3.46 billion and $448 million to date, respectively, through a combination of venture capital and crowdfunding.

In just five years, Waabi launched several pilots (with a human driver in the front seat) in Texas. The company planned to launch the autonomous vehicle on public roads at the end of last year, but the rollout has been delayed until sometime in the next few quarters, according to Urtasun.

Waabi is working with Volvo to develop autonomous vehicles for the purpose of the company it was revealed last October at TechCrunch Disrupt. Urtasun says Waabi Driver is ready to go, but the vehicles need to be fully verified before they can be installed.

Urtasun is not worried, however. He says Waabi’s cars are in high demand because of the company’s model of helping truckers to buy customized cars directly, and he’s confident that with Uber’s partnership, Waabi will be able to “enter the market quickly and grow with something that can be very reliable.”

“We’re still in the early stages of deploying robotaxis,” he said. “There’s more to come.”

Urtasun would not share details about Uber’s rollout, as automaker Waabi would agree. He added that Waabi will also take the same approach as its self-driving car by building its own sensors and technology into the car from the factory.

“We believe that we will integrate with a non-functional platform from an OEM,” he said. “That’s how you create technology that’s both safe and dangerous.”

Other investors in Waabi’s Series C include Uber, NVentres (Nvidia’s VC arm), Volvo Group Venture Capital, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, BlackRock, BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund, and others.