Deployment
Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck at Texas
The Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck is the autonomous heavy-truck product of Waabi, recorded in the truck form factor as the Waabi Driver generative-AI virtual driver running on a truck platform. Made by Waabi, founded in 2021 in Toronto and led by chief executive Raquel Urtasun, the former chief scientist of Uber's ATG self-driving unit, it is genuinely AI-primary: a single end-to-end generative-AI model, the Waabi Driver, that the truck cannot drive without, trained and validated in the Waabi World generative-AI closed-loop simulator and running on NVIDIA DRIVE Thor compute. The current go-forward platform is the Volvo VNL Autonomous, Volvo's purpose-built, redundancy-equipped tractor into which the Waabi Driver is vertically integrated, following a partnership announced in February 2025 and the truck's unveiling on October 28, 2025; this is distinct from the registry's separate Volvo VNL Autonomous entry for Volvo's own program. Waabi has run commercial freight on the roughly 385-kilometer Dallas-Houston lane with Uber Freight under a ten-year deployment commitment, but the load-bearing fact is that every run is safety-driver-supervised: Waabi's defining fully-driverless target was the end of 2025, and it was missed, slipping into 2026 and beyond pending validation of the Volvo VNL Autonomous platform, so the registry records the maturity as pilot and does not assert that driverless operation has been achieved. The differentiator claim of interpretable and verifiable AI safety is Waabi's own and is recorded as a claim. On funding, Waabi raised a $200 million Series B in June 2024 and a $750 million Series C in January 2026, co-led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners with NVIDIA, Volvo, and Porsche, plus a roughly $250 million milestone commitment from Uber tied to a deal to deploy at least 25,000 autonomous vehicles, as the company expanded beyond trucking into robotaxis. Named shippers beyond Uber Freight are not verified, and Waabi's safety-driver-supervised Dallas-Houston running should not be conflated with Aurora's separate driverless operations on the same corridor.
Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck by Waabi · Operated by Waabi · Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /deployments/waabi-uber-freight-dallas-houston.md
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/robots/008810ee-b126-4d51-89ea-2804be79c368
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Footage
Waabi's 2022 introduction of the Waabi Driver, its generative-AI and simulation-first autonomous-driving system. A concept and brand reveal, not the production Volvo VNL Autonomous truck (unveiled later) and not driver-out operation; 'driver-out' is Waabi's stated goal.
Waabi began commercial autonomous trucking on the Dallas-to-Houston corridor (385 km) in partnership with Uber Freight in September 2023. Trucks run with a safety driver during this commercial phase. Waabi opened a dedicated terminal in Lancaster, Texas (8+ acres, 24,700 sq ft maintenance facility, fueling station) to serve as the operational hub. The company reached feature-complete status in early 2025 and was targeting fully driverless operations on this route by end of 2025. Uber Freight provides the freight loads; Waabi owns and operates the autonomous trucks.
Key facts
- Route
- Dallas to Houston, Texas (385 km)
- Commercial start
- September 2023
- Freight partner
- Uber Freight
- Hub
- Lancaster, Texas (8+ acres terminal)
- Technology
- Waabi Driver AI system
- Safety driver
- Present during commercial phase; driverless target end-2025
- Trust tier
- Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified
- Last updated
- 2026-06-12
- Model
- Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck
- Company
- Waabi
- Location
- United States/Texas
- Operator
- Waabi
- Status
- operational
- First seen
- 2023-09-01
- ID
008810ee-b126-4d51-89ea-2804be79c368
Sources (2)
- Transport Topics — Waabi opens Texas terminal hub for self-driving trucks · https://www.ttnews.com/articles/waabi-texas-hub-trucks
- The Globe and Mail — Waabi raises $200M; Dallas-Houston commercial ops since September 2023 with Uber Freight · https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-waabi-raises-200-million-to-launch-driverless-commercial-trucks-in/
Methodology: Verified · 2 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-06-12
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-06-12
Maturity + lifecycle
Maturity stage: pilot
Lifecycle: active
Architectural position
Cohort: truck
Sources by quality tier
- 2
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck at Texas.Common questions
- What is the Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck deployment at Texas?
- Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck, built by Waabi, is recorded as a deployment at Texas on the DEPLOY registry. Waabi operates the deployment directly.
- Who operates Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck at Texas?
- Waabi, the manufacturer of Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck, operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.
- When did the Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck deployment at Texas go live?
- The deployment is recorded as starting September 1, 2023 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.
- Have there been incidents at the Waabi Driver Autonomous Truck deployment at Texas?
- No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.
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