Self-driving truck maker Waabi has employed autonomous automobile business veteran and Uber Freight CEO, Lior Ron, to step in as chief working officer, because the startup seems to scale its business operations forward of its deliberate launch of driverless vans on public highways later this yr.
Rebecca Tinucci, who beforehand spent six years constructing Tesla’s charging community earlier than the automaker gutted its charging employees final yr, will take over as head of Uber Freight. Ron will keep on as Uber Freight’s chairman.
“[Ron] will lead the go-to-market technique, increasing key partnerships, and actually bringing Waabi from the section that we’ve been in to commercialization at scale,” Raquel Urtasun, Waabi’s founder and CEO, advised TechCrunch. “He has proven his capacity to scale from inception to a $5 billion income firm with Uber Freight.”
Urtasun and Ron go approach again: Ron beforehand co-founded self-driving truck firm Otto, which Uber acquired in 2016. He overlapped with Urtasun at Uber, the place the latter was chief scientist, main the ride-hail agency’s self-driving analysis from 2017 to 2021.
Uber Freight is a digital market connecting shippers with carriers, and the corporate goals to combine self-driving vans with the platform by way of partnerships with startups like Aurora Innovation and Waabi. Uber’s partnership with Waabi isn’t affected by Ron’s departure, he stated.
Whereas working at Uber Freight, Ron says, he met commonly with chief provide chain officers and large carriers that he stated “couldn’t wait” for self-driving vans.
“If probably the most impactful factor to do within the subsequent decade is autonomy, and if the timing is correct, then for me it’s actually about becoming a member of forces with who I believe is most positioned to guide the transformation,” he added.
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Urtasun claims Waabi’s “AI-first” method to scaling autonomy has allowed it to do extra with fewer assets and in much less time than rivals. Given this can be a capital-intensive business that’s seen a number of promising startups, like TuSimple and Embark, crash and burn, effectivity could be a main benefit.
Because it was based in 2021, Waabi has raised $287.7 million in whole, the majority of which got here from a $200 million Sequence B in 2024. Urtasun claims the corporate doesn’t want to lift extra to get to its subsequent section of progress.
The startup’s chief competitor is Aurora, which this yr launched the primary business driverless trucking route within the U.S., and has raised almost $3.46 billion by a mix of enterprise capital and its public itemizing.
Waabi has managed to launch business pilots shortly as a result of it does most coaching, testing, and validation in Waabi World, its closed-loop simulator that each just about assessments the self-driving software program and teaches it in actual time. Extra not too long ago, Waabi took its simulator to the take a look at monitor, overlaying digital environments onto real-world driving circumstances to simulate situations like accidents and development zones with out the precise danger, based on Urtasun.
“Firstly of the yr, we reached characteristic full, which mainly means we now have all the mandatory issues to take away the driving force and [are focused] on the ultimate efficiency enchancment and validation,” Urtasun stated. “We’re on monitor for our driverless launch by the tip of the yr, which is the beginning of commercialization.”
The startup plans to launch in Texas, which has turn out to be the autonomous freight capital of the U.S., nevertheless it hasn’t but disclosed which routes it’ll function on or with which launch companions. The startup is working with Volvo Autonomous Options to develop and deploy custom-built AVs.
“Waabi will lead the expertise and it’ll scale autonomy sooner than ever anticipated,” Ron stated, including that he’s excited with the prospect of integrating the expertise into the shoppers’ operations. A part of that could be a characteristic that may allow Waabi’s vans to drive straight to buyer depots, avoiding the necessity to construct terminals for a hybrid setup.
“We’re going to create a commercial-ready answer that may actually meet them,” Ron stated.