Perrone Robotics
About
About Perrone Robotics
TONY is a modular autonomy kit designed to integrate with vehicles from different manufacturers and technology stacks. Perrone combines onboard compute, sensing, drive-by-wire interfaces and its MAX software platform to automate passenger shuttles, buses, cargo vehicles and specialist machines. Customers can procure the stack as a retrofit or as part of a turnkey vehicle configured for a defined operating domain.
Commercial deployments focus on geofenced service across campuses, downtown routes, parks, logistics hubs and public-transport networks. The company supplies both passenger and cargo configurations and supports the validation, integration and fleet work required to move from a vehicle platform to an operating autonomous service. Perrone sits at the autonomous-driving infrastructure layer because TONY is the reusable system spanning multiple third-party vehicle bodies.
Articles
Operations
Orders & commitments
- Order / commitment
2025-05-21 - A USDOT SMART grant supports TONY ADAS retrofits for six 35-foot Gillig buses across BCRTA, SARTA and WRTA in Ohio. - Ohio transit fleets
Source
Operating milestones
- Operating milestone
2025-01-01 - Perrone reports more than 100,000 autonomous miles accumulated across more than 30 different vehicle platforms.
Source
Deployments
- Operating use
2025-11-12 - Four TONY-equipped Ford E-Transit vans operate the Detroit CONNECT public transit service on a route exceeding 10 miles after more than one year of service. - Detroit CONNECT
Source
Supply
Supply chain relationships
- Advanced Micro Devices
Inbound - Compute & Control - Perrone Robotics uses AMD Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC processors in its autonomous-vehicle software platform
Source - Ouster
Inbound - Perception - Perrone Robotics selected Ouster LiDAR for Perrone Robotics autonomous platform
Source - Local Motors
Outbound - Software - Perrone Robotics agreed to integrate TONY autonomy technology into Local Motors Olli shuttles
Source
Funding
- 2021-02-12 - Equity financing - $10M - CapStone equity investment backs Perrone Robotics expansion
Perrone Robotics completed an equity offering to a single investor, identified by the company as CapStone Holdings. - source: sec.gov
- 2016-10-24 - Intel Capital invests in Perrone Robotics
Intel Capital named Perrone Robotics among 12 startups receiving new investments, without disclosing Perrone's allocation or a round label. - source: intc.com
Investors
- Intel Capital - Participant - Corporate / CVC - 1 funding event - strategic/corporate - first seen 2016-10-24
Team
- Paul Perrone - Founder and Chief Executive Officer - Founder and current CEO
- John Mottola - Chief Operating Officer - Current operating leader
- Nolan Bushnell - Board Member - Serves on Perrone Robotics' board, bringing experience from Atari and early personal-robotics company Androbot.
- Keith J. Stone - Board Member - Current director
- Mark Lydon - Board Observer - Current board observer
Timeline
Events
- 2025-11-12 - Deployment - Perrone Robotics marks one year of Detroit CONNECT autonomous transit operations
Four zero-emission, ADA-compliant Ford E-Transit vans connect the Rivertown Warehouse District, downtown Detroit and Corktown. The initial contract covered vehicle operations, autonomy integration and ongoing support. Perrone reported route expansion and steady ridership growth after the August 2024 launch.
Source - 2025-05-21 - Contract Award - Perrone Robotics and NEORide win SMART grant for six Ohio bus retrofits
The programme covers six 35-foot Gillig buses operated by BCRTA, SARTA and WRTA. Retrofits add collision avoidance, lane keeping and other driver-assistance functions to legacy fleets. The vehicle-agnostic kit services agreement spans three Ohio transit agencies.
Source - 2021-08-24 - Partnership - Perrone Robotics signs Olli autonomy OEM agreement
The companies planned to launch the TONY-equipped Olli in autumn 2021. Local Motors would support integration, testing, deployment and vehicle production. The collaboration targeted public and private road applications in US and international markets.
Source - 2021-02-12 - Funding - CapStone equity investment backs Perrone Robotics expansion
The SEC filing records a February 12 first sale and confirms that the full offering was sold to one investor. Perrone said the capital would scale TONY commercialization and support an advanced autonomous-vehicle test facility at the American Center for Mobility. At announcement, the vehicle-agnostic retrofit system had been applied across more than 30 vehicle types.
Source - 2016-10-24 - Funding - Intel Capital invests in Perrone Robotics
Perrone Robotics was one of 12 technology startups in Intel Capital's 2016 investment cohort. Intel grouped Perrone with autonomous-machine companies at its Global Summit in San Diego. Intel described Perrone as providing software and solutions for partially and fully autonomous vehicle and robotics applications.
Source
Commercial
- Perrone Robotics and NEORide win SMART grant for six Ohio bus retrofits
2025-05-21 · Order / contract · A U.S. Department of Transportation SMART grant funds installation, testing, operation and evaluation of Perrone TONY ADAS kits on six public-transit buses.
Source