Former SpaceX Engineers Are Making Electric & Self-Driving Railway Vehicles

Parallel Systems wants to reopen small rails roads with its electric autonomous locomotive

By Sahil Gupta

1 mins read

Published on January 20, 2022

Highlights

The electric locomotive company has raised $50 million in a series A
It was launched by a bunch of ex SpaceX engineers
Their locomotive will have 800 km of range and a payload of 128,000 lbs

Tesla is not the only company that's run by Elon Musk. In fact, Musk used some of the money he made with SpaceX to invest in Tesla to eventually gain control of the electric car maker. And SpaceX has also been categorised by Musk as some of the most important work he is doing in his life. But as it happens some of his former SpaceX engineers have quit and formed a startup that's looking to reinvent the railway industry. Parallel Systems, founded by former SpaceX engineer, Matt Soule who partnered with a bunch of his former SpaceX colleagues, intends to disrupt the railway industry with electric powertrains and autonomous vehicle technology that's taking over the consumer automotive space. The company has received $50 million in a Series A funding round and only recently came out of stealth SpaceX is the rocket company founded by Elon Musk Their idea is to create a small autonomous electric-powered rail vehicle. The idea is for a cargo vehicle that enables one to drop the cargo on a Parallel Systems vehicle and have it move without the need for the entire train to be unloaded. Each container can do individually move 800 km or band together to be even more efficient. This would allow smaller railroads to be reopened and new ones to be built to deliver cargo closer to customers and take some market away from trucks. These vehicles in question can also take in an impressive payload of 128,000 pounds which is twice the capacity of a semi-truck. So far though, their prototype vehicle can only do 80 km.