{"id":272988,"date":"2021-06-12T18:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T15:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/self-driving-startup-waabi-just-managed-to-net-83-5m-how\/"},"modified":"2021-06-12T18:00:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T15:00:32","slug":"self-driving-startup-waabi-just-managed-to-net-83-5m-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/self-driving-startup-waabi-just-managed-to-net-83-5m-how\/","title":{"rendered":"#Self-driving startup Waabi just managed to net $83.5M \u2014 how?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2809c627f73\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2809c627f73\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/self-driving-startup-waabi-just-managed-to-net-83-5m-how\/#Better_machine_learning_algorithms_and_simulations\" >Better machine learning algorithms and simulations<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/self-driving-startup-waabi-just-managed-to-net-83-5m-how\/#A_more_conservative_approach_to_commercialization\" >A more conservative approach to commercialization<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Self-driving startup Waabi just managed to net $83.5M \u2014 how?<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>It is not the best of times for self-driving car startups. The past year has seen large tech companies acquire startups that were running out of cash and ride-hailing companies\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2021\/04\/29\/self-driving-car-market-consolidation\/\">shutter costly self-driving car projects<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>with no prospect of becoming production-ready anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, in the midst of this downturn, Waabi, a Toronto-based self-driving car startup, has just come out of stealth with an insane amount of $83.5 million in a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Series<\/a> A funding round led by Khosla Ventures, with additional participation from Uber, 8VC, Radical Ventures, OMERS Ventures, BDC, and Aurora Innovation. The company\u2019s financial backers also include<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2020\/03\/02\/geoffrey-hinton-convnets-cnn-limits\/\">Geoffrey Hinton<\/a>, Fei-Fei Li, Peter Abbeel, and Sanja Fidler, artificial intelligence scientists with great influence in the academia and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lied AI community.<\/p>\n<p>What makes Waabi qualified for such support? According to the company\u2019s<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2021\/06\/08\/2243365\/0\/en\/Waabi-launches-to-build-a-pathway-to-commercially-viable-scalable-autonomous-driving.html\">press release<\/a>, Waabi aims to solve the \u201cscale\u201d challenge of self-driving car research and \u201cbring commercially viable self-driving <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> to society.\u201d Those are two key challenges of the self-driving car industry and are mentioned numerous times in the release.<\/p>\n<p>What Waabi describes as its \u201cnext generation of self-driving technology\u201d has yet to pass the test of time. But its execution plan provides hints at what directions the self-driving car industry could be headed.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Better_machine_learning_algorithms_and_simulations\"><\/span>Better machine learning algorithms and simulations<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1356725 js-lazy\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1-280x158.jpeg 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1-479x270.jpeg 479w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1-240x135.jpeg 240w\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1356725\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1-280x158.jpeg 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1-479x270.jpeg 479w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD1-240x135.jpeg 240w\"\/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p>According to Waabi\u2019s press release: \u201cThe traditional approach to engineering self-driving vehicles results in a software stack that does not take full advantage of the power of AI, and that requires complex and time-consuming manual tuning. This makes scaling costly and technically challenging, especially when it comes to solving for less frequent and more unpredictable driving scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leading self-driving car companies have driven their cars on real roads for millions of miles<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2018\/09\/17\/self-driving-cars-ai-computer-vision\/\">to train their deep learning models<\/a>. Real-road training is costly both in terms of logistics and human resources. It is also fraught with legal challenges as the laws surrounding self-driving car tests vary in different jurisdictions. Yet despite all the training, self-driving car technology struggles to handle corner cases, rare situations that are not included in the training data. These mounting challenges speak to the limits of current self-driving car technology.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how Waabi claims to solve these challenges (emphasis mine): \u201cThe company\u2019s breakthrough,<span>\u00a0<\/span><strong>AI-first approach<\/strong>, developed by a team of world leading technologists, leverages<span>\u00a0<\/span><strong>deep learning, probabilistic inference and complex optimization<\/strong>\u00a0to create software that is<span>\u00a0<\/span><strong>end-to-end trainable, interpretable and capable of very complex reasoning<\/strong>. This, together with a revolutionary<span>\u00a0<\/span><strong>closed loop simulator that has an unprecedented level of fidelity<\/strong>, enables testing at scale of<span>\u00a0<\/span><strong>both common driving scenarios and safety-critical edge cases<\/strong>. This approach significantly<span>\u00a0<\/span><strong>reduces the need to drive testing miles in the real world<\/strong><span>\u00a0<\/span>and results in a safer, more affordable, solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of jargon in there (a lot of which is probably marketing lingo) that needs to be clarified. I reached out to Waabi for more details and will update this post if I hear back from them.<\/p>\n<p>By \u201cAI-first approach,\u201d I suppose they mean that they will put more emphasis on creating better machine learning models and less on complementary technology such as lidars, radars, and mapping data. The benefit of having a software-heavy stack is the very low costs of updating the technology. And there will be a lot of updating in the coming years as scientists continue to find ways to<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2019\/07\/22\/general-ai-driverless-cars-impossible\/\">circumvent the limits of self-driving AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The combination of \u201cdeep learning, probabilistic reasoning, and complex optimization\u201d is interesting, albeit not a breakthrough. Most deep learning systems use non-probabilistic inference. They provide an output, say a category or a predicted value, without giving the level of uncertainty on the result. Probabilistic deep learning, on the other hand, also provides the reliability of its inferences, which can be very useful in critical applications such as driving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnd-to-end trainable\u201d machine learning models require no manual-engineered features. This means once you have developed the architecture and determined the loss and optimization functions, all you need to do is provide the machine learning model with training examples. Most deep learning models are end-to-end trainable. Some of the more complicated architectures require a combination of hand-engineered features and knowledge along with trainable components.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2021\/01\/11\/concept-whitening-interpretable-neural-networks\/\">interpretability<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2020\/07\/13\/ai-barrier-meaning-understanding\/\">reasoning<\/a>\u201d are two of the key challenges of deep learning. Deep neural networks are composed of millions and billions of parameters. This makes it hard to troubleshoot them when something goes wrong (or find problems before something bad happens), which can be a real challenge in critical scenarios such as driving cars. On the other hand, the<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2021\/03\/15\/machine-learning-causality\/\">lack of reasoning power and causal understanding<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>makes it very difficult for deep learning models to handle situations they haven\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n<p>According to<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2021\/06\/08\/ai-pioneer-raquel-urtasun-launches-self-driving-vehicle-startup-with-backing-from-khosla-uber-and-aurora\/\">TechCrunch\u2019s coverage<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>of Waabi\u2019s launch, Raquel Urtasan, the company\u2019s CEO, described the AI system the company uses as a \u201cfamily of algorithms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen combined, the developer can trace back the decision process of the AI system and incorporate prior knowledge so they don\u2019t have to teach the AI system everything from scratch,\u201d TechCrunch wrote.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1356726 js-lazy\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"387\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2-280x156.jpeg 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2-486x270.jpeg 486w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2-243x135.jpeg 243w\"\/><figcaption>Credit: <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-L9VuPpzVdQ\">CARLA<\/a><\/figcaption><figcaption><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/#\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.thenextweb.com%2Fshift%2F2021%2F06%2F12%2Fself-driving-startup-waabi-how-syndication%2F&amp;via=thenextweb&amp;related=thenextweb&amp;text=Check out this picture on: Simulation is an important component of training deep learning models for self-driving cars.\" data-title=\"Share Simulation is an important component of training deep learning models for self-driving cars. on Twitter\" data-width=\"685\" data-height=\"500\" class=\"post-image-share popitup\" title=\"Share Simulation is an important component of training deep learning models for self-driving cars. on Twitter\"><i class=\"icon icon--inline icon--twitter--dark\"\/><\/a>Simulation is an important component of training deep learning models for self-driving cars.<\/figcaption><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1356726\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2-280x156.jpeg 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2-486x270.jpeg 486w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD2-243x135.jpeg 243w\"\/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p>The closed-loop simulation environment is a replacement for sending real cars on real roads. In<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/6\/8\/22522824\/waabi-raquel-urtasun-autonomous-vehicle-startup-stealth-funding\">an interview with The Verge<\/a>, Urtasan said that Waabi can \u201ctest the entire system\u201d in simulation. \u201cWe can train an entire system to learn in simulation, and we can produce the simulations with an incredible level of fidelity, such that we can really correlate what happens in simulation with what is happening in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a bit on the fence on the simulation component. Most self-driving car companies are using simulations as part of the training regime of their deep learning models. But creating simulation environments that are exact replications of the real world is virtually impossible, which is why self-driving car companies continue to use heavy road testing.<\/p>\n<p>Waymo has at least 20 billion miles of simulated driving to go with its 20 million miles of real-road testing, which is a record in the industry. And I\u2019m not sure how a startup with $83.5 million in funding can outmatch the talent, data, compute, and financial resources of a self-driving company with more than a decade of history and the backing of Alphabet, one of the wealthiest companies in the world.<\/p>\n<p>More hints of the system can be found in the work that Urtasan, who is also\u00a0a professor in the Department of Computer <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a> at the University of Toronto, does in academic research. Urtasan\u2019s name appears on many papers about autonomous driving. But one, in particular, uploaded on the arXiv preprint server in January, is interesting.<\/p>\n<p>Titled, \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2101.06806\">MP3: A Unified Model to Map, Perceive, Predict and Plan<\/a>,\u201d the paper discusses an approach to self-driving that is very close to the description in Waabi\u2019s launch press release.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1356727 js-lazy\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"204\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3-280x82.jpeg 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3-540x158.jpeg 540w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3-270x79.jpeg 270w\"\/><figcaption><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/#\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.thenextweb.com%2Fshift%2F2021%2F06%2F12%2Fself-driving-startup-waabi-how-syndication%2F&amp;via=thenextweb&amp;related=thenextweb&amp;text=Check out this picture on: MP3 is a deep learning model that uses probabilistic inference to create scenic representations and perform motion planning for self-driving cars.\" data-title=\"Share MP3 is a deep learning model that uses probabilistic inference to create scenic representations and perform motion planning for self-driving cars. on Twitter\" data-width=\"685\" data-height=\"500\" class=\"post-image-share popitup\" title=\"Share MP3 is a deep learning model that uses probabilistic inference to create scenic representations and perform motion planning for self-driving cars. on Twitter\"><i class=\"icon icon--inline icon--twitter--dark\"\/><\/a>MP3 is a deep learning model that uses probabilistic inference to create scenic representations and perform motion planning for self-driving cars.<\/figcaption><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1356727\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3-280x82.jpeg 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3-540x158.jpeg 540w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BD3-270x79.jpeg 270w\"\/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p>The researchers describe MP3 as \u201can end-to-end approach to mapless driving that is interpretable, does not incur any information loss, and reasons about uncertainty in the inter<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>te representations.\u201d In the paper researchers also discuss the use of \u201cprobabilistic spatial layers to model the static and dynamic parts of the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MP3 is end-to-end trainable and uses lidar input to create scene representations, predict future states, and plan trajectories. The machine learning model obviates the need for finely detailed mapping data that companies like Waymo use in their self-driving vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>Raquel posted a video on her YouTube that provides a brief explanation of how MP3 works. It\u2019s fascinating work, though many researchers will point out that it not so much of a breakthrough as a clever combination of existing techniques.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a sizeable gap between academic AI research and applied AI. It remains to be seen if MP3 or a variation of it is the model that Waabi is using and how it will perform in practical settings.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Arxiv 2021: mp3\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8LPrYcWZaRc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_more_conservative_approach_to_commercialization\"><\/span>A more conservative approach to commercialization<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Waabi\u2019s first application will not be passenger cars that you can order with your Lyft or Uber app.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team will initially focus on deploying Waabi\u2019s software in logistics, specifically long-haul trucking, an industry where self-driving technology stands to make the biggest and swiftest impact due to a chronic driver shortage and pervasive safety issues,\u201d Waabi\u2019s press release states.<\/p>\n<p>What the release doesn\u2019t mention, however, is that highway settings are an easier problem to solve because they are much more predictable than urban areas. This makes them less prone to edge cases (such as a pedestrian running in front of the car) and easier to simulate. Self-driving trucks can transport cargo between cities, while human drivers take care of delivery inside cities.<\/p>\n<p>With Lyft and Uber failing to launch their own robo-taxi services, and with Waymo still away from turning One, its fully driverless ride-hailing service, into a<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/cars\/2021\/05\/why-hasnt-waymo-expanded-its-driverless-service-heres-my-theory\/\">scalable and profitable business<\/a>, Waabi\u2019s approach seems to be well thought.<\/p>\n<p>With more complex applications still being beyond reach, we can expect self-driving technology to make inroads into more specialized settings such as trucking and<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2019\/04\/22\/autonomous-forklifts-ai\/\">industrial complexes and factories<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Waabi also doesn\u2019t make any mention of a timeline in the press release. This also seems to reflect the failures of the self-driving car industry in the past few years. Top executives of automotive and self-driving car companies have constantly made bold statements and given deadlines about the delivery of<span>\u00a0<\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2020\/07\/29\/self-driving-tesla-car-deep-learning\/\">fully driverless technology<\/a>. None of those deadlines have been met.<\/p>\n<p>Whether Waabi becomes independently successful or ends up joining the acquisition portfolio of one of the tech giants, its plan seems to be a reality check on the self-driving car industry. The industry needs companies that can develop and test new technologies without much fanfare, embrace change as they learn from their mistakes, make incremental improvements, and save their cash for a long race.<\/p>\n<p><i><span>This article was originally published by Ben Dickson on\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/\"><i><span>TechTalks<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>, a publication that examines trends in technology, how they affect the way we live and do business, and the problems they solve. But we also discuss the evil side of technology, the darker implications of new tech, and what we need to look out for. You can read the original article <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bdtechtalks.com\/2021\/06\/10\/waabi-self-driving-car\/\">here.<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/self-driving-startup-waabi-how-syndication\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Self-driving startup Waabi just managed to net $83.5M \u2014 how?&#8221; It is not the best of times for self-driving car startups. The past year has seen large tech companies acquire startups that were running out of cash and ride-hailing companies\u00a0shutter costly self-driving car projects\u00a0with no prospect of becoming production-ready anytime soon. Yet, in the midst&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":272989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/shift?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/06\/3BDSF1.jpg&signature=ee711b8cc65af968e475a478d6d76c70","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}