Raquel Urtasun

Raquel Urtasun is the founder and CEO of Waabi, an AI company revolutionizing self-driving technology through a fundamentally different approach. Rather than relying on millions of miles of real-world testing, Waabi uses generative AI and advanced simulation to train and validate autonomous driving systems — a more scalable, safer, and cost-effective methodology.

Urtasun is a professor at the University of Toronto and was previously the Chief Scientist at Uber ATG (Advanced Technologies Group), where she led the self-driving research division. She is one of the world's most cited researchers in computer vision and machine learning, with particular expertise in 3D perception, scene understanding, and autonomous systems.

Waabi focuses initially on autonomous trucking, a massive industry where the driver shortage and economic case for automation are especially compelling. The company has raised over $280 million in funding.

Urtasun holds a PhD from EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).