Southeast Orlando’s growing Lake Nona neighborhood will announce today that it’s getting one of the region’s first autonomous vehicle solutions.
Orlando Business Journal has learned that Beep Inc. — which will be based in Lake Nona — will manage self-driving passenger vehicles in the community and beyond. The company has a focus on planned communities and low-speed environments like medical and university campuses.
Beep will partner as “exclusive dealer and preferred partner” for research and development with France-based NAVYA for its vehicles in Florida, which each can seat up to 15 people according to Beep’s website.
“Starting with a feasibility analysis and extending through ongoing operations and maintenance, Beep provides a complete suite of managed services,” the company’s website states. “These services include monitoring, managing and operating the routes and buses from the Beep Command Center and trained on-board stewards to greet your passengers and ensure a pleasant and safe experience.”
NAVYA’s Autonom Shuttle do not have a steering wheel or brake and gas pedals, according to its website. The vehicles uses a combination of Lidar sensors, cameras, GPS RTK (Global Positioning System Real Time Kinematics), IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and odometry to navigate without a driver.
Cities where NAVYA operates vehicles currently include Lyon, France; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Sion; Switzerland and Perth; Australia. The company also operates vehicles on private sites, including the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., and in Fukushima, Japan, among others.
Members of the executive team for Beep include former Ford and General Electric engineer Milton Reed, former Virtustream technology finance executive Mike Provenzano and former Zilarah Technologies Inc. telecommunications executive Mark Reid. Board members for the company include technology execs Kevin Reid and Rod Rogers, who both are with Blue Lagoon Cos. in Bethesda, Md.
When Beep Inc. will begin rolling out vehicles, the involvement of Tavistock Development Co. LLC which developed Lake Nona and other factors will be revealed in an 11 a.m. press conference. To watch, view the stream here.
Meanwhile, the SunTrax self-driving vehicle test facility in Polk County — a 2.25-mile test track designed for high-speed travel — is being built on a 475-acre Auburndale site and the first phase will open this year. The infield will be a simulated urban core and simulate other environments to test transit, vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle interactions with automated vehicles. New renderings and a video walk-through show more details of how the downtown-like environment will be created.
The fast-growing Lake Nona community boasts more than 11,000 residents, 5,000 employees and 14,000-plus students at its schools.
The Lake Nona Town Center, now with its second phase underway, is “one of the bigger, more high-profile projects being built (in Central Florida),” John Artope, executive vice president and market leader at SRS Real Estate Partners, previously told OBJ. The town center is expected to introduce about 80 shops and restaurants, a hotel, office space and more into the 17-square-mile community — generating new jobs and injecting new tax revenue into the area. The town center’s general contractor is Birmingham, Ala.-based Hoar Construction LLC.
Lake Nona also features the 650-acre Medical City life sciences district, which includes Nemours Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center Orlando and the University of Central Florida medical school, as well as a new $175 million, 64-bed teaching hospital now under construction and more.