Photo: Lightning eMotors
A recently announced partnership between Lightning eMotors and Perrone Robotics aims to offer customers self-driving, commercial electric vehicles for a wide range of applications.
Colorado-based company Lightning eMotors provides zero-emission-vehicle solutions for commercial fleets and Perrone Robotics (which is based in Virginia, U.S.) specializes in fully automated vehicle systems. The latter is renowned for its AI (artificial intelligence)-powered TONY (to navigate you) technology, described by the developer as a “vehicle-independent retrofit kit designed to enable vehicles to transport people and goods in geofenced and dedicated driving routes."
Lightning eMotors, which boasts of offering the widest range of electric commercial vehicles in North America, plans to embed Perrone’s technology into its vehicles for both passenger and cargo uses. Now, through the new agreement, Lightning eMotors also has an autonomous vehicle solution for its products, ranging from ambulances to campus shuttles and other commercial applications, as explained by CEO Tim Reeser.
Perrone’s technology will first be used for fully autonomous Level 4 applications, with those vehicles only being able to operate in geo-fenced areas, on dedicated routes, and for Level 2 applications for commercial vehicles. Level 2 autonomous vehicles include advanced safety features such as lane-keeping capability, adaptive cruise control, and forward collision avoidance. Lightning’s vehicles offer all these features, being powered by LiDAR technology fused with radar, for added safety.
The first customer to benefit from the self-driving electric vehicles from Lightning eMotors and Perrone is PIDC, Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation, which is going to buy an all-electric shuttle. The shuttle will be used to transport visitors and employees within the 1,200-acre Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Lightning eMotors boasts of its partnership with Perrone making it the only all-electric commercial vehicle provider to offer “Class 3-7 medium-duty vehicles that are fully autonomous and certified by the departments of transportation, local transit agencies, and other commercial organizations”, as stated by Reeser. You can watch a Lightning electric van equipped with Perrone Robotics’ autonomous system here.
Lightning eMotors, which boasts of offering the widest range of electric commercial vehicles in North America, plans to embed Perrone’s technology into its vehicles for both passenger and cargo uses. Now, through the new agreement, Lightning eMotors also has an autonomous vehicle solution for its products, ranging from ambulances to campus shuttles and other commercial applications, as explained by CEO Tim Reeser.
Perrone’s technology will first be used for fully autonomous Level 4 applications, with those vehicles only being able to operate in geo-fenced areas, on dedicated routes, and for Level 2 applications for commercial vehicles. Level 2 autonomous vehicles include advanced safety features such as lane-keeping capability, adaptive cruise control, and forward collision avoidance. Lightning’s vehicles offer all these features, being powered by LiDAR technology fused with radar, for added safety.
The first customer to benefit from the self-driving electric vehicles from Lightning eMotors and Perrone is PIDC, Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation, which is going to buy an all-electric shuttle. The shuttle will be used to transport visitors and employees within the 1,200-acre Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Lightning eMotors boasts of its partnership with Perrone making it the only all-electric commercial vehicle provider to offer “Class 3-7 medium-duty vehicles that are fully autonomous and certified by the departments of transportation, local transit agencies, and other commercial organizations”, as stated by Reeser. You can watch a Lightning electric van equipped with Perrone Robotics’ autonomous system here.
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