SpaceX alumni nab $100M to rethink shipping with autonomous freight trains
The railroad industry was one of the first to disrupt how the world worked with technology, but lately, innovation in freight railroading has amounted to little more than longer and longer trains.
That has led many railroads to abandon shorter routes, ceding a chunk of the $1 trillion surface freight market to trucking companies. But as diesel prices reach record highs, some of those very trucking companies are going bust, leaving a hole in the market. Recently, at least 16 trucking companies went bankrupt over only a few weeks.
Parallel Systems might have a way to keep freight moving while allowing railroads to recapture market share. The startup has developed a rail vehicle capable of moving over several tons of freight as far as 500 miles without an operator. If the company can scale production of its Panther vehicles, it stands to make railroads profitable over short hauls once again.
...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to techcrunch.com. To see the full text click HERE
