Parallel Systems, which is developing battery-electric railcars that operate autonomously, will launch testing this month on two Georgia railroads, Parallel said on Monday.
The Los Angeles-based company also announced it had raised an additional $38 million in funding, bringing its total to date to about $100 million.
“Federal Railroad Administration approval and closing our Series B funding round are two critical milestones for Parallel Systems,” Matt Soule, Parallel founder and chief executive, said in a release. “Together with our strategic partnerships within the rail industry, Parallel Systems is now poised to fully commercialize our battery-electric rail system, starting with the FRA-approved project in Georgia.”
In January, the Federal Railroad Administration approved a request from Parallel, Georgia Central and Heart of Georgia Railroad to test its self-propelled intermodal flatcars, but the company had not previously identified when testing would begin.
The seven-phase testing program on the two Genesee & Wyoming short lines will begin with testing on 2 miles of track on the Heart of Georgia that will be disconnected from the rest of the railroad. It will gradually progress to platoon operation of the cars with loaded containers over a 160-mile segment of the two railroads.
The company said the latest funding will be used to “propel commercialization” of its project with railroad partners in the U.S. and Australia, where it has also demonstrated its product.
Parallel said it already had a backlog of more than 300 of its autonomous railcars with leading railroads and expects to launch commercial operations in 2026. The company said it is scaling production of its Generation 3 equipment and related autonomy software train control systems, and has tested its technology’s compatibility with positive train control in collaboration with Union Pacific.
Competitor Intramotev of St. Louis has deployed autonomous railcars in commercial operations at a calcium mine in Missouri and told FreightWaves it is close to signing a deal for autonomous intermodal cars with a customer outside the United States.
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