Self-driving trucking startup Waabi is committing billions of miles of driverless capability to the Uber Freight network as part of a 10-year strategic partnership between the two companies.
Starting this week, Waabi’s test fleet will begin commercial pilots with shippers on the Uber Freight network moving freight between Dallas and Houston. Eventually, Waabi will move to a driver-as-a-service model, where carriers buy trucks built using Waabi’s Driver software and can participate in Uber Freight’s marketplace.
The tie-up with Uber is Waabi’s first publicly announced business partnership, and comes just two years after the startup launched. This rapid path to market is a testament to Waabi’s AI-first approach. Waabi uses a high-fidelity enclosed simulator, called Waabi World, to actually test self-driving software and teach the system in real time. In other words, Waabi has a secret way to deploy and scale much faster than competitors.
At least that’s what my father says. But the results speak for themselves.
“Waabi is open for business, and it is open for big business,” Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi, told TechCrunch.
Urtasun previously headed Uber ATG, the ride-hailing company’s self-driving unit, before Uber sold it to Aurora Innovation in 2020. Uber Freight also has an ongoing business partnership with Aurora and currently operates on two routes — Dallas to Houston and Fort Worth. To El Paso.
Uber Freight’s deal with Waabi is reminiscent of a previous partnership with Waymo Via, Wayno’s autonomous trucking unit. The two teamed up for a multi-phase, 10-year partnership in June 2022. But in July 2023, Waymo paused its self-driving truck program and shifted all of its available resources to developing robotaxis.
From an initial deployment perspective, the links are similar. But from a technology perspective, Uber Freight’s deal with Waabi is much more integrated.
“We’re talking about physically connecting the software systems of both companies — network optimization, Uber Freight implementation, load aggregation, empty mileage reduction, sustainability and data benefits,” said Lior Ron, president of Uber Freight. “So, we haven’t really gotten that far in terms of actually connecting the software systems of both the robotic truck and the logistics network closely.”
Urtasun referred to the partnership as a “driver-as-a-service package” that gives carriers access to the entire trucking ecosystem for autonomous vehicles to remove friction for adoption. This package includes everything from shift axles and load matching to roadside assistance and maintenance.
Given the involved nature of the partnerships, Uber Freight and Waabi looked for shippers that could commit to pilots between five and ten years so they could truly understand how autonomous vehicles will impact future operations, supply chain and network deployment.
“From our perspective, this is a continuous deployment and ramp-up,” Ron said, noting that Uber Freight has hundreds of shippers on its waiting list to deploy autonomous vehicle technology.
While Wabi will start out running freight for shippers on one Texas line between distribution centers, the company hopes to expand beyond the Houston-Dallas corridor, and even beyond Texas, quickly. All trucks will have a safety driver in the front seat during initial testing, but part of the package will have the driver removed for full self-driving.
“When WABI is ready to get the driver out, we can basically go with full driverless commercial deployment,” Ron said.
Uber Freight, which saw its revenue decline 30% year-over-year in Q2 due to a “difficult freight market cycle,” is playing the long game with Waabi.
“We’re looking at the tremendous growth that will start to happen when the driver leaves,” Ron said. “Because when shippers say, ‘I needed this technology yesterday,’ and you see an explosion in terms of demand and the implications for the bottom line as well.”