Robotic vehicles will drive UVA North Fork Research Park employees

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - We’ve all heard robots are the future, and now you can ride in one.

Perrone Robotics has devised a completely self-driving vehicle, and soon it will be taking more than 1,000 people to places they want to go in UVA’s North Fork Discovery Park.

Nick Pilipowskyj is the vice president of business operations with Perrone Robotics.

“The park is over 500 acres and it’s growing every day, new buildings, new tenants,” Pilipowskyj said.

When people who work or visit North Fork want to take a lunch break or hit the gym, they don’t have to walk for miles.

“The greatest thing about this partnership is that we will be able to transport our employees and visitors from the 9 buildings right here at North Fork,” North Fork Marketing and Relationships Manager Misty Parsons said.

The trucks will hit the road for the first time on December 12th, staying on campus and not venturing out onto Route 29m though Perrone said that could happen in the future.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty cool new amenity that the park is graciously offering to it’s tenants. We’re going to have one of the new vehicles,” Pilipowskyj said. “We’ll have those running between the different amenities and various office buildings here in the research park.”

He says while the trucks will run autonomously as much as possible, there is always a safety driver on board.

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