American rail operator, Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) is planning on piloting the use of autonomous battery-powered wagons on two short lines in Georgia. Using technology from Parallel Systems, the vehicles could be used to transport containers to and from the coastal port of Savannah, moving them inland with the goal of reinvigorating rural railways and removing lorries from the roads.
G&W has applied to the Federal Railroad Administration to undertake the trial on its Georgia Central Railway and Heart of Georgia Railroad subsidiaries which covers rail lines from Savannah to Midville and nearly 500 miles of track.
If approved, the multi-phase project would begin next year, enabling the technology to be demonstrated in a field setting with ’carefully developed protocols to ensure the pilot is operated in a safe, controlled manner’.
Parallel Systems was founded by former Space X engineers and has been developing battery-electric rail vehicles since 2020 with its stated goal of moving freight from the road to rail. The Automated Battery-Electric Vehicles have been developed alongside an associated train control system and has been funded in part by the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Initiative (ARPA-E) and initially went through testing in March.
At the time of the testing, Matt Soule, co-founder of Parallel Systems said: “We have been laser focused on testing, validating and iterating our technology as these are essential steps to preparing our technology for track readiness. We are conducting ongoing and extensive analysis and testing to demonstrate that our rail vehicles are ready to be used in pilot programs with real railroad customers.
“A big part of achieving commercialization is having a train control system that works with what the railroads use today. We are developing a system that will allow railroad companies to operate our autonomous vehicles from their in house platforms.”
In January 2022 the company announced $49·6m of Series A funding led by Anthos Capital and including Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures, Embark Ventures and others.
Photo Credit: Istock
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