Autonomous Trucking Startup Waabi Hires Dustin Koehl to Lead Transport Operations
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Self-driving truck developer Waabi has hired trucking executive Dustin Koehl as its head of transportation as the technology startup ramps up its operations.
Waabi, founded in 2021 by CEO Raquel Urtasun, is a new entrant in the emerging field of autonomous trucking. The company is using its simulation technology to test and develop a virtual driver with the goal of enabling unmanned tractors to haul freight across stretches of highway in hub-to-hub operations.
Koehl joins Waabi with 16 years of trucking industry experience, most recently as senior vice president for over-the-road operations at truckload carrier U.S. Xpress Enterprises.
In an interview with Transport Topics, Koehl said he sees his new role at Waabi as opportunity to “humanize” technology in a way that improves drivers’ lives and the sustainability of supply chains.
He also said Waabi is intent on working collaboratively with fleets to address longstanding pain points in the transportation industry that he has witnessed firsthand during his career, especially while riding along with truck drivers.
“There’s just so much brokenness — congestion, shipper delay and dwell,” Koehl said. “There is such a greater opportunity, I think, to bring all the stakeholders together to help solve a lot of this.”
For the past few years, Koehl has been deeply involved in pilot tests of self-driving trucks. During his time at U.S. Xpress’ corporate office in Chattanooga, Tenn., Koehl oversaw the company’s autonomous trucking program, which has formed partnerships with multiple developers of self-driving systems for commercial trucks.
U.S. Xpress ranks No. 23 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
Earlier in his career, Koehl spent a dozen years at U.S. Xpress subsidiary Total Transportation of Mississippi as that business grew its operations through a focus on innovation, technology deployment and network optimization.
2015 INTERVIEW: Dustin Koehl on TT's LiveOnWeb (also embedded below)
Koehl also has been actively engaged in shaping trucking industry policy through his work with American Trucking Associations’ communications committee and automated truck subcommittee. He was a member of the inaugural 2013-14 class of the Lead ATA education program for young trucking industry executives.
Sun
Vivian Sun, Waabi’s chief commercial officer, said her company envisions autonomous trucking as a new mode of transportation that will complement truck drivers rather than replace them.
“Usually, the human driver and the virtual driver are pitted against each other,” she said. “At Waabi, we want to change the narrative. We don’t want it to be one against the other.”
Instead, Waabi intends to work with professional drivers to help “train” the company’s virtual driver and transfer their skills to its technology.
That technology ultimately can benefit drivers, Sun said. “In the future when this is fully developed and deployed, our system is going to help them improve their lifestyle and the supply chain.”
We’re happy to announce Dustin Koehl is joining Waabi as our Head of Transportation! In his new role, Dustin will build a strong safety culture at Waabi, bridging the conversations w/ the trucking ecosystem & leading the industry into the next generation of autonomous trucking. pic.twitter.com/dgcG8Gwdm1 — Waabi (@Waabi_ai) September 29, 2022
While Waabi is relying heavily on simulation and artificial intelligence to refine its autonomous driving technology, it also plans to conduct on-road testing as the final stage of its validation process. But Sun said Waabi’s test fleet will be smaller than those operated by some other autonomous truck developers because the company’s simulation-first approach will enable it to do “much more with much less.”
Waabi is based in Toronto with U.S. headquarters in San Francisco.
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