Good morning. An autonomous vehicle startup just got one of the largest venture capital financings in Canadian history and has plans to bring more robotaxis to life – soon. Our sci-fi transportation dreams are slowly coming true and the future is in focus today, along with a new project that will probe the cosmos.
Up first
In the news
Metals: Surging precious metal prices are expected to keep takeover traffic moving at a brisk pace among gold and silver miners
Trade: India and the EU clinched a free-trade agreement calling it the "mother of all deals" after nearly 20 years of negotiations
Tariffs: General Motors expects tariffs could cost it as much as US$4-billion this year
A Waymo robotaxi drives along California Street in San Francisco.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
In focus
Waabi take the wheel
Hi, I’m Joe Castaldo, and I write about artificial intelligence for The Globe’s business desk. That means I’m also curious to try new technologies.
There were two things I wasn’t prepared for the first time I took a self-driving Waymo taxi in Los Angeles last summer. The first was a moral dilemma: Would I be depriving an underpaid Uber driver of a gig? Was I so anti-social that I couldn’t bear to ride in awkward silence with another person?
Then, there was the mild embarrassment. People stared at the ridiculous-looking car, jacked up with cameras, when it arrived to pick me up.
The ride itself was perfect. The Waymo navigated around buses picking up passengers, stopped when it was supposed to and made smooth left turns through busy intersections.
At the end of my ride, the car pulled into a downtown parking lot and fastidiously positioned itself before the doors unlocked, while a group of vaping young men looked on. Surely, I thought, these guys were going to roast me as I, a dorky tourist, exited this dorky robot car. Instead, they pulled out their phones to film the Waymo driving away.
The experience showed me that while self-driving cars are still novel, they are very real and are gaining consumer acceptance.
That’s what Raquel Urtasun is betting, too.
Her company, Waabi Innovation Inc., announced a massive US$750-million fundraising round today to continue expanding into autonomous long-haul trucking, along with a plan to launch robotaxis in partnership with Uber.
Raquel Urtasun, CEO and Founder at Waabi, with an automated driving truck, Toronto, June, 2024.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
Waabi makes an AI system that powers self-driving vehicles. It’s already been operating autonomous trucks in Texas for a while, with a safety driver in the cab. (Eventually, that person won’t be needed.) For Urtasun, robotaxis are the logical next step. The system Waabi has built, she said, is just as equipped to handle city streets as it is highways.
The Toronto company said it will deploy a minimum of 25,000 autonomous vehicles on Uber’s ride-hailing service, but hasn’t shared details about where or when.
After my Waymo experience, I’ve been wondering about my moral dilemma and what would motivate consumers to take a robotaxi over a regular Uber. “Everyone I know that has used it even a couple of times doesn’t want to go back,” Brook Porter said, whose firm G2 Venture Partners invested in Waabi. Safety is one reason: Uber has long faced scrutiny for sexual assault and misconduct committed by drivers on its network.
Porter also told me the experience is “just so much better,” offering privacy and control over things like the AC and the music. “It’s your space instead of needing to navigate the complexities of a driver,” he said. He acknowledged his impression could be coloured by the fact that he lives in the bubble of Silicon Valley.
But maybe navigating the complexities of another human being is a good thing – a necessity of living in the world, in fact – whereas retreating into our personal bubbles is alienating. Or perhaps I’m overthinking this. Porter also said that consumers will be drawn to robotaxis because of economics. The cost of human drivers will go up, while the cost of technology will go down.
For businesses and consumers, that may be what matters most.
Charted
Striking a CHORD
The Globe and Mail
Hundreds of antennas will take root in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley for an ambitious project to monitor signals from space. When completed, the Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio-transient Detector (CHORD) will include the core array near Penticton, B.C., along with two “outriggers” at locations in the United States. When working together, the widely spaced stations will be able to observe distant radio sources with higher precision than the core site alone.
Quoted
You have to understand, we are 1.4 billion plus: the world’s most populous country. We’re going to grow no matter what happens. We will consume more, and we will become the biggest consumer the world has seen similarly to what China was 15 to 20 years back.
— Dinesh Patnaik, New Delhi’s envoy
Ottawa and New Delhi are preparing to launch talks on a comprehensive trade deal as Prime Minister Mark Carney makes plans for a March trip to the subcontinent, which will be his first. Analysts are saying that Canada’s plan to increase energy exports to India makes sense given how the South Asian country’s massive population and rapid economic growth have boosted its demand for fossil fuels.
Up next
More files we’re following
More tunes: Neil Young gives Greenland a year’s worth of free access to his music, to “ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats” from the U.S.
More zooms: Electric vehicle sales in the EU surpassed those of gas-powered cars for first time.
More to watch: Today is a double header. This morning, the Bank of Canada has its policy announcement, will release its Monetary Policy Report, and Governor Tiff Macklem will hold a press conference. In the afternoon, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will hold a press briefing after the central bank’s announcement.
Earnings include: ASML ADR, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., Celestica Inc., CGI Inc., IBM, Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., Starbucks Corp., and Tesla Inc.
Morning update
Global markets took a breather ahead of Big Tech earnings and interest rate decisions by the Bank of Canada and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Wall Street futures were in positive territory, while TSX futures followed sentiment higher.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.47 per cent in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 0.46 per cent, Germany’s DAX gave back 0.16 per cent and France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.98 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.04 per cent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.58 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded at 73.72 U.S. cents. The U.S. dollar steadied after a sharp selloff, but was still set for its biggest weekly fall since last April.