Beep and Oxa Partner to Deploy Autonomous Vehicles Driven by Oxa in US

Beep Inc., provider of autonomous shared mobility solutions, and Oxa, an autonomous vehicle software developer, are partnering to deploy vehicles driven by Oxa’s self-driving software product, Oxa Driver, as Beep continues to advance its testing and operations across the United States.

Marking UK-based Oxa’s entry into the US market, the strategic partnership will see Oxa’s autonomy software installed in a variety of vehicle types operated by Beep, from current passenger shuttles to future vehicle platforms. The first initiative in the partnership is a fleet of Beep autonomous and electric shuttles driven by Oxa Driver, Oxa’s software that enables safe and energy-efficient self-driving of any vehicle type in any environment.

Two of the Beep shuttles featuring Oxa software are currently operating at the recently opened SunTrax test facility in Auburndale, Florida—the first location in the US specifically designed for connected autonomous vehicle and standard automotive testing in a single site. Oxa is utilizing the facility to showcase its passenger transportation solution ahead of public availability later this year.

Oxa Driver combines sensor data from cameras, lidar and radar, enabling it to gain a more comprehensive view of the world around it than vehicles that rely on cameras alone. This fused sensor technology is the first deployed in a passenger shuttle in the US, the partners said. The software uses AI to sense and predict changes to the vehicle’s environment accurately while learning from previous journeys, which is key to improving the capability of the technology over time.

This latest announcement follows a successful Series C funding round for Oxa, which raised more than $140 million for the business earlier this year, as well as a new strategic partnership with Google Cloud through which Oxa is leveraging a number of Google Cloud products to help develop, test, validate and verify its self-driving technology.