Beep, a Florida, US-based provider of multi-passenger, electric, autonomous mobility solutions, has recently closed a US$20m Series A round of investment with Intel Capital and Blue Lagoon Capital. The funding will enable Beep to continue the expansion of its autonomous fleet deployments across North America and leverage its learnings to advance passenger mobility service for cities, business districts and campuses at scale.
Beep utilizes a combination of machine learning, contextual traffic data and the company’s existing centralized command center data to provide vital oversight in managing high-risk scenarios for autonomous vehicles in complex geo-fenced environments.
Its Lake Nona, Orlando, Florida operation is the country’s largest and longest running autonomous shuttle service deployment in one location with five routes, eight shuttles, more than 29,000 real passengers and thousands of hours of operation – with a command center (using proprietary technology) to provide continuous human monitoring to enhance safety.
In addition to established partnerships with communities such as Lake Nona in Orlando and Tradition in Port St Lucie, Florida, Beep is working with many municipalities and transit authorities to enhance access to main corridors in underserved and urban areas.
Beep specialises in planning, deploying and managing advanced autonomous shuttles for both private and public communities, safely connecting people, places and services in first-mile, last-mile mobility networks. The company also leverages the data and learnings from its public road deployments to produce vehicle-agnostic edge solutions meant to enhance safety, access, AI and driverless operating capabilities of autonomous platforms.
“Beep’s autonomous mobility solutions provide an important bridge in launching, overseeing and managing autonomous service deployment for communities, campuses and cities across the US and beyond,” said Mark Lydon, managing director, Intel Capital. “They are doing the necessary work of putting concept into action, and they have the technology capabilities to chart new territory.”
“Beep’s long-term strategy to create new autonomous mobility technologies, coupled with its team’s strength in advanced platform engineering and software design, gives them a unique advantage when it comes to advancing mobility in various use cases,” added Kevin Reid, general partner, Blue Lagoon Capital. “Beep’s solutions provide the continuous level of oversight necessary to close the gap that currently exists with today’s autonomous vehicle platforms.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Intel Capital and Blue Lagoon Capital into the Beep family as we continue to bring the vision of autonomous mobility to life,” concluded Joe Moye, CEO, Beep. “Our mission is to improve safety on the roads for everyone while positively impacting the environment and delivering mobility-for-all in our public and private communities. This latest round of funding will help us meet our goal of advancing the use of driverless platforms meant to enhance the quality of life in many areas of society.”