Los Angeles startup is testing driverless freight trains in Southern California

Los Angeles startup Parallel Systems is testing driverless freight trains that could soon change the way goods move across America.

Tucked away in the quiet town of Fillmore, California, the company is developing sleek, autonomous, battery-powered railcars designed to take on one of the biggest sources of freeway congestion: diesel trucks.

These futuristic trains can travel up to 500 miles on a single charge, move independently or in groups, and operate with the kind of precision that might even turn the heads of Tesla engineers.

It’s a big, bold idea from a small team with roots in SpaceX.

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This Los Angeles startup wants to be the ‘Waymo of freight rail’

Parallel Systems has raised $100 million and secured federal approval to test its trains on shared tracks, including a new site near the Port of Savannah in Georgia.

The company’s founder and CEO is Matt Soule, a veteran at SpaceX, which recently launched its 10,000th Starlink satellite.

He likes to describe his mission as being the ‘Waymo of freight rail’, which is pretty ambitious considering Waymo itself has been gathering a lot of steam.

At a dusty test track outside Fillmore, one of the company’s gray-and-black prototypes glides quietly along three miles of rail, monitored by engineers in safety vests.

Each 44-foot car runs on lithium-iron phosphate batteries powering two electric motors, and the cars communicate wirelessly to maintain perfect spacing and speed.

Instead of traditional couplers, the vehicles use smart technology to ‘flock’ together, like a convoy of robotic geese on rails.

Soule’s 50-person team, many of them former Tesla and Rivian engineers, believes these driverless freight trains could help unclog ports and reduce carbon emissions.

By handling short-haul cargo runs that currently require thousands of idling diesel trucks, the trains could cut pollution and free up highways across California.

Driverless freight trains versus autonomous trucks

Parallel Systems is still perfecting its autonomous software, using cameras, lidar and machine learning to navigate existing rail infrastructure.

This is very similar to how companies like Waymo and Tesla develop their own autonomous vehicles.

However, the Los Angeles startup is the only one with federal approval to run commercial autonomous trains, which gives it an edge over its competitors.

Experts say the idea is viable, but note that scaling it won’t be easy in a truck-heavy economy.

And it’s not like the trucking industry has been staying idle either.

Companies like Gatik are already rolling out self-driving trucks, bringing autonomous vehicles to North America.

Still, if Soule’s vision pays off, autonomous trains may soon be the future of railroad operations in the US.

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