Waabi and Uber Freight team up to deploy autonomous trucks

September 27, 2023

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Autonomous trucking technology company Waabi and Uber Freight have recently announced a partnership to deploy autonomous trucks in Texas.

According to a Waabi news release, the agreement between the two companies pairs the Waabi Driver technology with Uber Freight’s logistics platform and marketplace technology to deliver a driver-as-a-service solution. Specifically, autonomous commercial loads will run regularly between Dallas and Houston. As the partnership continues to advance, Waabi and Uber Freight will expand to other key lanes in Texas and beyond.

“This exciting partnership allows us to bring Waabi’s revolutionary generative AI innovation to the forefront of our vast freight network, providing our shippers and carriers nationwide with the tools needed to embrace autonomous technology and transform their operations safely and efficiently,” Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron said in a statement. “We are thrilled to work with them to usher in a new era for our industry.”

Over the next 10 years, Waabi and Uber Freight also intend to deploy billions of miles of Waabi Driver capacity alongside carrier partners on the Uber Freight network, ensuring the technology will have a meaningful impact for shippers and carriers over the long term.

It is not clear how many Waabi-powered trucks are involved with the partnership.

“Uber Freight has the scaled freight network and marketplace expertise needed to efficiently and safely deploy our AI-first self-driving technology at scale,” Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun said in a statement. “The unique solution we are building together will empower carriers to dynamically and effectively deploy the Waabi Driver while also unlocking critical capacity for shippers and driving value throughout the supply chain. Together with Uber Freight, we are accelerating the future of autonomous trucking.”

According to its website, the Waabi Driver is an end-to-end trainable system that automatically learns from data, speeding up development and enabling it to learn the complex decision-making needed for operating on the road safely. LL