Autonomous Volvo Trucks Will Use This Firm's Tech
Waabi's generative AI system will train Volvo's SAE Level 4 software as the truck maker inches toward the commercial launch of its autonomous trucks this year.
The Toronto-based company has recently launched a hub for driverless trucks in Texas, as work intensifies to automate the Houston to Dallas truck route.
If it feels like robotaxi tech is finally gathering momentum after a few years of small-scale rollouts, a similar trend is unfolding in the driverless truck sphere, which is a few years behind the currently unfolding robotaxi revolution.
Toronto-based autonomous tech developer Waabi, which recently opened an autonomous trucking terminal near Dallas with facilities tailor-made for a fleet of driverless trucks, is perhaps best known in the industry for its AI training model for autonomous vehicles.
And now it is teaming up with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to vertically integrate Waabi Driver—its virtual driver system—into Volvo's upcoming VNL Autonomous semi truck.
This integration will also allow Volvo to train its own autonomous trucks using Waabi's generative AI system, which the company says can safely generalize to many scenarios encountered in traffic.
The autonomous developer calls its system an AI-first approach, with Waabi World being an AI-generated closed-loop simulation engine offering countless scenarios for training driverless systems, both in everyday driving and rare edge cases.
"At Waabi, we believe that vertically integrating next-generation AI technology directly into an OEM's vehicle production is the path forward to bring safe, robust autonomous vehicles to the road, at scale," said Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi.
The SAE Level 4 trucks themselves face a different set of traffic challenges than robotaxis, needing to see and interpret events unfolding much further down the road, up to a half mile in some circumstances. They also need truck terminals specially suited to autonomous vehicles, as well as a remote command center that monitors the fleet in real time and makes adjustments as necessary.
Most of autonomous truck development efforts are centered on the Dallas to Houston route, which has already seen on-road testing by a number of developers and truck makers. This is due in large part to Texas' embrace of autonomous testing, along with Nevada, but most of the efforts contemplate purely intra-state routes of just a few hours between warehouse centers. But it's a start.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Waabi plan to begin testing the Waabi Driver system in its trucks later this year, with Volvo's VNL Autonomous trucks themselves slated to enter production at the company's main plant in New River Valley, Virginia, in 2025.
"Waabi is at the forefront of developing self-driving technologies leveraging the full power of AI," said Shahrukh Kazmi, chief product officer at Volvo Autonomous Solutions.
It remains to be seen just how quickly Volvo and other hopefuls can scale their SAE Level 4 trucks in Texas. But a number of major fleets are already getting ready for a future where driverless trucks will be a common sight, at least in a handful southwest states.
Will even 10% of truck routes in the US be served by autonomous trucks by 2030, or will this transition take far longer to gather momentum? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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