Its autonomous electric railcars, which run in trains without couplings, aim to bring rail transport back into the picture for journeys of less than 800 km, which are currently dominated by lorries.
Parallel Systems has closed a $100 million Series C round led by AVP, including Hillspire, Congruent Ventures and Collaborative Fund, bringing its total funding to more than $200 million. Founded in 2020 by engineers who designed the avionics for SpaceX's rockets, the company is developing the Panther, a battery-powered rail vehicle capable of transporting several tons of cargo for about 800 km without an operator on board.
The challenge is to win back short-haul freight: about 60% of freight trips in the U.S. are less than 500 miles, and trucks are mostly on duty, with railroads preferring ever longer trains. Parallel's vehicles drive alone or in platoons without a hitch, allowing them to automatically separate at the rail yard; their sensors constantly monitor the track in front of them.
Authorized a year and a half ago by the Federal Railroad Administration, the company is testing its system on 160 miles of track around the port of Savannah (Georgia), where lines of trucks saturate the accesses. The funds are to be used to industrialize the third generation of the vehicle and to launch the first commercial deliveries, announced as imminent.
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