Beep Inc. in three years rolled out self-driving shuttle routes from Wyoming to Georgia, but its next expansion may be in the city where it began: Orlando.
Beep, headquartered in southeast Orlando’s popular Lake Nona community, aims to deploy autonomous shuttles in downtown Orlando, CEO Joe Moye told Orlando Inno.
Moye said Beep is in discussions with the city of Orlando regarding plans for what would be Beep’s first Orlando operations outside Lake Nona, where it operates five routes.
City of Orlando spokeswoman Cassandra Bell confirmed to Orlando Inno that the city is interested in piloting autonomous vehicles downtown, particularly in the $1.5 billion Creative Village mixed-use development that’s taking shape.
However, nothing is concrete, Bell said. “Our conversations about integrating any of these types of vehicles into our transportation options have only been exploratory, with no official plans for a pilot at this time.”
Still, it’s clear there is an opportunity for Beep to continue its expansion while providing workers, students and residents in downtown Orlando with a new form of first- and last-mile transportation.
Plan for the future
The city of Orlando made preparation for autonomous vehicles a strategy of its future-ready city master plan, which is a roadmap guiding its goals in improving local connectivity, energy, health/safety, placemaking, mobility, water and materials policies and infrastructure.
Of course, self-driving ground vehicles aren’t the only futuristic mode of transportation the city is exploring. The future-ready city master plan also calls for the city to embrace elective vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, also called EVTOL.
The city also is working on an advanced air mobility transportation plan to prepare for the introduction of EVTOL, VHB Chief Technology Officer Dave Mulholland previously told Orlando Business Journal. VHB is working with the city of Orlando on both plans.
“The city of Orlando is one of the first in the entire country to take on an advanced air mobility master plan,” Mulholland said. “The plan VHB is assembling with the city is evaluating where these EVTOL are going to be landing and flying throughout the city.”
VC, job growth for Beep
Meanwhile, Beep has grown from a handful of employees with one shuttle route in 2019 to an 80-person team overseeing 20 routes across the U.S. The company’s growth got a recent boost in the form of a $25 million fundraising round announced March 22.
That money will fund further development of Beep's autonomous vehicle software platform that will enable the shuttles to be operated entirely remotely, Moye said.
Currently, Beep shuttles drive themselves but have an attendant on board. However, the company is working toward reaching automotive engineer association SAE International’s definition of Level 4 driving automation. Level 4 means the shuttles can drive themselves with no human driver intervention under certain conditions. It’s just shy of Level 5, the highest level of autonomy, which is fully autonomous vehicle operation in any conditions.
The next 18-24 months will yield significant advancements in the autonomy of Beep’s vehicles, Moye said. “It’s the right target for the right time.”
Beep’s growth generates high-wage technical jobs. Moye expects the company to employ 100 people by the middle of this year, and Beep has six open positions in Orlando that include a project manager, systems engineer and technical support specialist.
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