GenAI advances can bring AVs to scale, says Waabi

The challenges of developing fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) continue to mount. Making a return on investment is imperative, and even well-financed Big Tech players like Apple and Samsung have exited the field amid speculation that bringing SAE Level 4 to the mass market is too far off. The constraints of current generation technology are arguably to blame.

“The industry has consolidated around a familiar approach—what I call ‘AV 1.0’—and I don’t believe it will allow deployment at scale,” says Raquel Urtasun, Founder and Chief Executive of Waabi. Formerly a professor of computer science and Chief Scientist at Uber, she started her company in 2021 to explore how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) could reshape self-driving technology.