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Autonomous Driving Startup Raises $83.5 Million, It is Run by Former Uber CSO

The self-driving vehicle market is getting kind of crowded, with new companies emerging every day, trying to make autonomous driving technology a reality in every corner of the world. Now a former Uber CSO (Chief Scientist Officer) launches her own self-driving company in Canada.
Raquel Urtasun Waabi CEO 1 photo
Photo: Waabi
Raquel Urtasun was a very valuable asset for Toronto’s Uber branch and was named CSO in 2018. But she decided to move on and make her own company, for which she raised no less than $83.5 million in funding, being backed up by major investors such as Uber, Aurora, 8VC, Radical Ventures, and many more.

Urtasun is an artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer and wants to harness the power of AI technology in her own company called Waabi. She is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and a co-founder of the Vector Institute for AI.

The visionary Waabi founder and CEO stated that her company's goal is to bring self-driving closer to commercialization than ever before.

Her fresh approach even mirrors in her startup’s name, as Waabi stands for “she has vision” in the Ojibwe language. It also means “simple” in Japanese.

According to Urtasun’s statement, this company is the culmination of her life’s work to bring commercially viable self-driving technology to society. She is helped in her mission by an impressive team of engineers, technologists, and scientists, all committed to bringing her bold vision to fruition. The Waabi team is based in both Toronto and California, with the startup having 40 employees at this time.

For now, we are keeping an eye on the company to find out more about its plans to bring world-class self-driving technology to Canada, as we haven’t been given many details so far. All we know is that Waabi promises to build the next generation of autonomous driving tech and plans to use AI to accomplish that.
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About the author: Cristina Mircea
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Cristina’s always found writing more comfortable to do than speaking, which is why she chose print over broadcast media in college. When she’s not typing, she also loves riding non-motorized two-wheelers, going on hikes with her dog, and rocking her electric guitars.
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