Perrone Robotics, Inc., a Virginia-based provider of fully autonomous vehicle technology and turnkey vehicle solutions for the mobility of people and things, and Tropos Motors, a Silicon Valley based cleantech compact electric vehicle manufacturer and supplier, have formed a partnership to produce a series of fully autonomous, electric low speed vehicles (e-LSVs) and trucks.
(Photo above: A truck being developed by Perrone and Tropos Motors)
The new vehicle platform will combine Perrone’s TONY® (short for “To Navigate You”) autonomous vehicle (AV) retrofit kit that embeds into any vehicle type for any job, with Tropos Motors’ (Tropos) innovative full line of all-electric, street-legal vehicles, including the Tropos Motors ABLE™ full line of durable, versatile and available eCUVs™ (electric Commercial Utility Vehicles). The result is a market-driven compact utility AV solution that works across a wide range of industries including – cargo, delivery, agricultural, industrial, municipal and campus transportation applications. Future platforms in development will include a series of emergency and first-responder solutions that will be available later this year.
Lowering the Barriers to Entry to Fully Autonomous and Electric Fleets
The innovations in EV technology have fundamentally disrupted the transportation and transit space. Perrone’s reliable, performance-driven TONY AV retrofit kit will pair with the Tropos EV platform to offer mobility solutions including last-mile delivery of products and food, various trades and utility uses, as well as off-highway and on-campus usage.
Tropos vehicles can operate in extremely tight quarters with a short wheelbase and turning radius for indoors, outdoors and off-road. This operability opens up new channels to deploy and extend across various applications. Perrone’s autonomy provides a scalable solution built around a patented full-stack platform and a safety certifiable framework. The result is an AV retrofit kit that integrates seamlessly into any vehicle for any job application for use in the autonomous transit of people and goods in geo-fenced and localized operations. Customers are able to accelerate the global deployment of autonomous vehicle fleet solutions across their gas-powered, diesel and electric passenger and cargo shuttles.
The partnership will include the delivery of Perrone’s reliable core TONY autonomous vehicle driverless system, the licensing of software, and the provision of related services.
“The demand for reliable and proven AV solutions in today’s mobility market continues to expand. By partnering with Tropos, we’re able to jointly offer customers a solution for transit of goods across a wide variety of applications that is tested, scalable and sustainable,” said Paul Perrone, CEO of Perrone Robotics. “Integrating the Tropos novel payload adaptable vehicle platform with Perrone’s fully autonomous technology delivers a new kind of option for customers who need cost-effective and scalable solutions across their cargo and delivery model. The collaboration results in an accelerated production pathway to meet the increasing demand for Electric Low Speed Vehicle (e-LSV) applications across industries.”
“Our best-in-class electric vehicles coupled with Perrone’s turnkey, drop-in AV solution helps our customers transition to more cost-effective and environmentally friendly fleets simply and quickly. Autonomous eLSVs are becoming increasingly important to the market given the zero emissions and reduced total cost of ownership when compared to traditional fleet vehicles,” said John Bautista, founder and CEO of Tropos Technologies.
The partnership announcement comes weeks after Perrone completed a series of complex operational design domain demonstrations (ODD) for autonomous vehicles on public roads. Perrone will announce another municipality customer contract for several autonomous and electric vehicles in the coming months.
