Self-driving truck startup Waabi's billion-dollar fundraise isn't just about trucks.
The deal, for $750 million up front plus another $250 million from Uber tied to deployment milestones, marks a major expansion into robotaxis for the company founded by former Uber AI chief Raquel Urtasun. It also feels like another chip from Uber on the autonomous vehicle roulette table. With more than 20 AV partners worldwide, the question isn't just whether Waabi can deliver on its plans to deploy over 25,000 robotaxis, but whether Uber's bet-on-everything strategy actually works.
Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane and Anthony Ha discussed Uber's AV partnership strategy, why Waabi's "simulation-first" approach might be different, and more of the week's headlines.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:13 Palmer Luckey's bold recruiting strategy
04:04 Phia raises $35M for sustainable shopping
06:27 Browser extensions & the privacy problem
09:59 Northwood Space's $100M Series B & Space Force contract
12:17 The rise of dual-use space companies
14:01 Waabi's $1B valuation & beyond trucking
16:36 Uber's strategy: Betting on every AV partner
19:12 TikTok's US deal & immediate outage
21:46 TikTok competitors gain ground
24:03 IPO window opening: Ethos, Serve, and SpaceX
27:57 Will Elon actually take SpaceX public this time?
29:11 Outro
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