The University of Toronto鈥檚 Raquel Urtasun, a leading expert in machine learning and computer vision, is taking her startup鈥檚 self-driving technology for long-haul trucks out for a spin, with several autonomous vehicles ready to hit the road in the United States, according to reports.
The CEO and founder of Waabi told the that a handful of trucks are 鈥渞eady to be deployed鈥 with human drivers and engineers on-board for safety. In , Urtasun 鈥 a professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and faculty member at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence 鈥 said that Waabi will train the self-driving system to navigate any number of virtual scenarios using a simulator that harnesses the full power of AI.
She added that the approach gives Waabi an advantage over bigger competitors since it鈥檚 more efficient 鈥 and effective 鈥 than relying on real-world testing.
鈥淏ecause we can do everything on the simulator we are already ready with a generation that is much more advanced,鈥 Urtasun told the magazine.
Waabi emerged from stealth mode in June 2021 after in funding from Silicon Valley giants such as Khosla Ventures and Uber, as well as AI luminaries including U of T's Geoffrey Hinton, a Emeritus and Sanja Fidler, an associate professor of computer science.
Originally published on.