Published: May 27, 2026

By Rahul Kalvapalle

From self-driving vehicles to new frontiers in robotics, the next wave of AI is moving beyond the digital world - and Canada has the necessary ingredients to chart a bold path forward.

Attendees at a BetaKit Most Ambitious town hall on May 25 heard how innovators, buoyed by the country's strong university-based research system, could play a critical role in safeguarding Canadian sovereignty in this new era.

Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of self-driving trucking company Waabi, said transportation is an example of a critical industry that's undergoing a major shift.

"Transportation is something core where - quoting Evan Solomon, our minister of AI - 'We need to make sure that we have control over our destiny,'" said Urtasun, who is also a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, during a fireside chat with U of T President Melanie Woodin.

"We need to make sure we can move goods and people regardless of how geopolitics and the world evolve over the next few years."

Held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the event - part of Toronto Tech Week - celebrated the innovators named in BetaKit's Most Ambitious 2026 issue, nearly a quarter of whom are from the U of T community. It featured remarks from tech, entrepreneurship and political leaders including Solomon, Canada's minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Christian Weedbrook, a former U of T postdoctoral researcher who is the founder and CEO of quantum computing company Xanadu, which recently made its debut as a public company.

Urtasun said Canada's deep roots in AI research and talent offers an opportunity to lead the way in next-generation automotive technology. While the transportation landscape has long been controlled by large car and truck manufacturers, she said that's changing with self-driving tech.

In addition to Waabi, Urtasun noted that Canada is home to several other key players in autonomous transportation including parts manufacturer Magna International and operating system developer Blackberry QNX. "We have all the important pieces in order to really lead the transportation of the future ... versus 'Let's just try to follow the U.S. and try to have something that's competitive here,'" Urtasun said.

Waabi has already made major moves to establish itself as a global leader in the category. In January, the company announced it raised US$750 million to accelerate commercialization of its self-driving technology - its investors include Volvo, whose driverless truck is powered by Waabi - in addition to US$250 million in milestone-based funding from Uber to expand into robotaxis.

Urtasun said she hopes to see more Canadian success stories in the sector. "There is so much capital that we can attract and there is such incredible talent that we have here in Toronto, and in Canada in general, that we could become 'the' player that dictates what it's going to be."

Urtasun offered a bold prediction: a majority of vehicles on the road would be "Waabi-powered" within a decade. She also said there were many other potential applications for the company's physical AI platform, ranging from elder care to mitigation of industrial accidents. "Self-driving is the first big vertical," she said, adding that "not going all in on physical AI would be such a big miss for the country."

The conversation also explored the benefits of academics embarking on entrepreneurial ventures. Recounting Urtasun's proposal to take on a leadership role at Uber's self-driving lab in Toronto in 2017, Woodin - then the dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science - said the arrangement provided U of T graduate students with a compelling opportunity to conduct research and innovation at the forefront of the field.

She added that Urtasun, Weedbrook and others, including the U of T founders behind AI startup Cohere, have also acted as entrepreneurial role models, inspiring students "to want to follow that path."

Urtasun, for her part, thanked Woodin and former U of T president Meric Gertler for their support.

"Since then, there are many faculty who have provided similar avenues for their students to not have to compromise between academia and industry - but do something that is better than either one of them alone."

Read more about U of T innovators at Toronto Tech Week