Shield AI, Waabi, GM execs on AI when failure isn't an option — SkimNews
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- Nathan Michael, Shield AI's CTO, will join Waabi founder and CEO Raquel Urtasun and GM Director of Robotics Strategy Mikell Taylor on the Real World AI Stage for the panel "Building AI Systems When Failure Is Not An Option" at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
- Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software was selected in February as an autonomy provider for the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone prototype program, and the company closed a $1.5 billion Series G at a $12.7 billion post-money valuation in March.
- Waabi raised $1 billion in January and announced a partnership with Uber to deploy 25,000 or more Waabi Driver-powered robotaxis, using its Waabi World simulator to train, test, and stress-test the system before driverless deployment.
- Mikell Taylor leads robotics strategy at GM's Autonomous Robotics Center and previously headed the Amazon Robotics team that developed Proteus, Amazon's first fully autonomous mobile robot.
- The Disrupt panel covers building a safety culture, testing and validating systems, navigating regulatory hurdles, and earning trust for AI deployed in aircraft, autonomous vehicles, and industrial robots — environments where a single failure has real-world consequences.
- TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 runs October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco with 250+ speakers and 300+ exhibiting startups; the up-to-$200 ticket discount expires September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Why it matters: Founders building physical-world AI get a direct cross-industry comparison: Shield AI's Hivemind, recently picked for Air Force drone prototypes after a $1.5B Series G; Waabi, which raised $1B in January for a 25,000-vehicle Uber robotaxi rollout; and GM's robotics arm, which absorbed Proteus-era expertise from Amazon. Each faces the same validation gap before deploying without a human in the loop.
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