Self-Driving Vehicles to Hit the Roads at Halley Rise This Spring

Tenants in two buildings at Halley Rise will have the option to hop into self-driving vehicles as soon as June.

Optimus Rise, a self-driving technology company, unveiled today (Feb. 7) a partnership with Brookfield Properties that will bring the self-driving vehicle program to the tenants of One Reston Crescent and Two Reston Crescent.

“We will deploy our self-driving system at Brookfield’s Halley Rise location this summer to provide users with autonomous mobility access between office buildings as we continue to scale our business,” Ryan Chin, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Optimus Rid, said in the press release.

The program’s initial phase will roll out three self-driving vehicles, which will be completely contained within the development site, starting in June, according to the press release. Tenants will be able to use Optimus Ride’s reservation system and on-demand ride services to get from the two office buildings to the parking lots at the Halley Rise site.

An operations team on site will monitor, update, provide maintenance, clean and charge the fleet service, the press release says.

The self-driving vehicle program fits into the goals of Vision Zero, a road traffic safety initiative to eliminate fatalities or serious injuries, and also adheres to Vision Zero speeds, Optimus Ride claims.

Formerly known as Reston Crescent, Halley Rise is located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Reston Parkway and Sunrise Valley Drive. The new $1.4 billion mixed-use development is transforming a 36-acre office park into:

• 1,500 residential units
• 1.5 million square feet of office space
• 250,000 square feet of retail
• an 80,000-square-foot Wegmans

The development is expected to be completed by 2026.

Rendering via Optimus Ride