Raquel Urtasun

Raquel Urtasun is a professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Computer Science, a co-founder of the Vector Institute for AI, and the former chief scientist at Uber’s self-driving unit, the Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), that was sold off to a competitor in 2020. The following year, Raquel launched the self-driving company Waabi — becoming one of the few women-led AV (autonomous vehicle) startups in the world. 

An expert in the fields of machine learning, computer vision, robotics, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence, Raquel’s career move was well received. Waabi brought in an astonishing $100 million in funding — one of the largest Series A rounds to ever be raised in Canada. Keeping her headquarters in Toronto, Raquel will be bringing a diverse team of engineers and researchers together to help build Waabi, making the city a leader in self-driving technology.