GreenPower Motor Company, a manufacturer and distributor of zero emission electric-powered vehicles, together with Perrone Robotics, a provider of fully autonomous vehicle (AV) technology and vehicle solutions for the mobility of people and things, have announced their OEM agreement. Under this new agreement, the two companies will continue to build on the success of the original AV Star developed for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) in 2019.

The original AV Star was developed to meet a growing demand in the transit and transportation sector where reliable mobility was a requirement to expand accessibility options for all end-users. Once deployed in 2019, the JTA AV Star became a fully autonomous, all electric, ADA-compliant, and FMVSS certified vehicle. The base EV Star vehicle is also Altoona tested and Buy America compliant. 

With the success of this project, GreenPower and Perrone Robotics have come together to deliver the next generation of the AV Star. Through this OEM agreement, GreenPower’s EV Star, a multi-purpose, zero-emission, min-E Bus will be upfitted with Perrone's TONY (short for "To Navigate You") autonomous vehicle retrofit kit, which will transform the EV Star to the AV Star. The vehicle is built on the same chassis as the EV Star and combined with Perrone’s autonomous vehicle platform.

The AV Star aims to be a leading mobility and transportation choice for cities, municipalities, and public and private campuses. The vehicle is capable of carrying up to 16 passengers, is ADA compliant, FMVSS compliant, and can travel at highway speeds. These are important and critical features driven by the vision for the future of autonomous transit.

The AV Star is currently being proved out in the industry through the company’s work with the Jacksonville Transit Authority (JTA) and U2C to undergo testing for transit applications.