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Self-Assembling Autonomous Bogies Will Replace Locomotives to Make Trains Something Else

Historically speaking, the train is the most successful means of transportation ever invented by humankind. If we are allowed to stretch things a bit and consider wagons running on specially-designed stone ways as trains, then their lineage stretches back to over 2,000 years BCE, to a place called Babylon.
Autonomous trains with no lovomotive could soon become reality 13 photos
Photo: Parallel Systems
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In their current form, meaning machines that move along on tracks under locomotive power, trains are over two centuries old. During all that time, aside for design, materials used, and means of propulsion, nothing has changed when it comes to how a train moves about.

According to Statista, the global railway network now stretches for a total of 1.3 million km (about 808,000 miles), which is over three times the distance from your house to the Moon. The largest network of this kind can be found in the U.S. with (depending on who you ask) up to 220,000 km (136,700 miles) of track available.

With such a long history to it, and with the clear advantages it brings, especially when it comes to freight transport, the train will probably still be around for centuries more to come.

No matter how they generated power, locomotives have been pushing and pulling trains up and down those many miles of track for as long as the concept has been around. Unlike the trains as a notion, locomotives themselves will probably not be around for nearly as long. At least, not if a company called Parallel Systems has anything to say about it.

Autonomous trains with no lovomotive could soon become reality
Photo: Parallel Systems
Created by a team that comprises former employees from SpaceX, Google, and Tesla, Parallel has made it its mission to forever change what it means to ship something by train. And they’ll use for the task at hand autonomous systems powered by electricity.

As said, current trains move courtesy of a locomotive pulling or pushing them about. They comprise the locomotive itself, and any number of goods-filled cars, which generally stay connected to each other from origin to destination. Once arrived, the contents of the cars are moved onto trucks, which take the goods to whoever ordered or needs them. For all that to happen, large terminals complete with sorting yards need to be present at the destination.

Parallel proposes a solution that takes the locomotive out of the equation, and makes each car an independent unit, if need be. Still unnamed, the tech is nothing more than self-powered bogies on top of which shipping containers can be lowered.

Calling the thing a “patent-pending vehicle architecture,” the company envisions each bogie (to make a train car, two are needed, one up front and the other at the rear, under the container) to be battery-powered, and able to keep moving for 500 miles (805 km). The charging time to get back to tip top shape after a trip is rated at one hour.

Autonomous trains with no lovomotive could soon become reality
Photo: Parallel Systems
The bogie is also autonomous, using an undisclosed camera-based perception system to get its bearings - although to be fair, traveling on tracks must be a lot easier than on the road for an automated system, which kind of makes you wonder why we don’t have more driverless trains around.

In theory, the Parallel solution works a bit like this. At the point of origin, a pair of autonomous bogies are topped by a container, either as a single or double stacked. It gets moving, either alone, or in a convoy of connected cars that come together and self-assemble in a train. Parallel calls such a formation a platoon.

Depending on destination, each car can leave the train when the time is right, and does not need to go through a sorting yard. Instead, the company is looking to create specialized direct-to-seaport, direct-to-warehouse, and standalone micro-terminals. The really interesting part is that the train can split in motion.

The splitting part is also extremely useful when the train gets stuck and needs to create room to let traffic through, including (or especially) emergency vehicles.

Autonomous trains with no lovomotive could soon become reality
Photo: Parallel Systems
Parallel says the solution it is now working on will be able to use America’s existing rail infrastructure. It also promises four times more energy efficiency than highway trucks and, in case you’re worried about such things, ten percent quicker stopping time in case of emergency when compared to regular trains.

At the time of writing, there is no estimated date on when we’ll have a working train of this type on our hands, but we hear the company is already testing the idea on a closed track somewhere in Los Angeles.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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