US-based autonomous wagons developer Parallel Systems signed an agreement with Agility, an investment company headquartered in Abu Dhabi. The deal is a “strategic collaboration to develop, commercialise, finance and deploy autonomous rail freight systems across the GCC, wider EMEA region and other international markets,” Agility said.
Under the partnership, Parallel and Agility will look into “regional adaptation, testing, addressing regulatory approvals and all other protocols to enable Parallel to become fully operational in the region“. The first step will be identifying the first corridors and financially viable options to deploy autonomous freight wagons, the Abu Dhabi-based company added.
Parallel Systems develops wagons equipped with a battery that can travel individually or in small groups. This makes “rail more competitive with trucking while reducing road congestion,” according to Parallel’s Executive Chairman Arun Gupta. In addition, this initiative could create additional capacity in the Gulf ports and improve container flows, said Agility’s Chairman Tarek Sultan.
Parallel Systems
The company was founded by former SpaceX engineers in California in 2020 and claims to be “the world’s first autonomous battery-electric rail system”. Their technology eliminates the need for wagons to couple and connect air brake lines, as each wagon has its own braking system.
Parallel Systems completed its first commercial tests in the US state of Georgia in September 2025 in cooperation with Genesee & Wyoming. Union Pacific is also cooperating with Parallel Systems in making sure that autonomous wagons can safely share busy railways with the massive diesel trains running in the US.
Now, it seems that the company is ready to take steps outside of the US soil and venture into new markets in Europe and Asia.
