The company also announced a deal to deploy self-driving vehicles in a private development in California
Self-driving vehicle company Optimus Ride announced plans to deploy its self-driving systems at two sites in the United States.
The first site is the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a 300-acre modern industrial park with over 400 manufacturing businesses and 9,000 people working on site, while the second place where the firm aims to deploy self-driving vehicles is Paradise Valley Estates, a private 80-acre community located in Fairfield, California.
Optimus Ride will provide residents and workers at both sites with access to self-driving mobility within defined, geo-fenced areas.
A few weeks ago, Optimus Ride announced a partnership with Brookfield Properties to deploy self-driving vehicles at Brookfield’s Halley Rise development, located just outside of Washington, D.C. With these new programs, Optimus Ride will be operating deployments in four U.S. states.
Slated to launch in the second quarter of 2019, Optimus Ride’s deployment at the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be the first commercial self-driving vehicle program in the state of New York. Optimus Ride will deploy self-driving vehicles on the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s private roads, providing a loop shuttle service to connect NYC Ferry passengers to Flushing Avenue outside the Yard’s perimeter.
“We are excited to announce not one but two self-driving vehicle deployments,” said Ryan Chin, CEO and co-founder of Optimus Ride. “Working with leading developments and communities like Paradise Valley Estates and the Brooklyn Navy Yard enable us to further our mission to transform mobility. We’re pleased to be the first company to launch a self-driving vehicle program in the state of New York and, having now announced three deployments in the first quarter of 2019, are well positioned as the leader in self-driving systems for geo-fenced areas.”
“The Brooklyn Navy Yard has long been a center of innovation and we are very pleased to announce our plans to deploy Optimus Ride’s self-driving system this summer,” said David Ehrenberg, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation. “Optimus Ride’s self-driving system will provide efficient transportation for the thousands of commuters who work at the Yard.”
Dduring the initial phase of the program at Paradise Valley Estates, the primary service will be to provide prospective residents with self-driving tours of the community. Additionally, residents will be able to access Optimus Ride through its reservation and on-demand ride services to travel to-and-from their friends’ homes, as well as travel to the community/health center, and access outdoor activities within the property, according to Optimus Ride.
Kevin Burke, CEO of Paradise Valley Estates, said that the community is “constantly exploring new ways of innovating within our industry. With Optimus Ride’s self-driving system, we can attract an increasingly tech-savvy population seeking independent mobility. It also improves the daily experiences and the quality of life for our residents by enabling them to travel easily and safely throughout our community.”
Optimus Ride is headquartered in Boston, and its investors include Nextview, Nvidia, Emerson Collective and Firstmark, among others.
