Meet Olli, a 3D-printed autonomous driving electric bus that’s hailed through an app

IBM’s Watson is the supercomputer equivalent of a polymath/renaissance man, dabbling in everything from health to trivia game shows. Watson’s latest project involves powering a 3D printed self-driving minibus called Olli. Developed by the Arizona-based startup Local Motors, Olli was designed to function as an on-demand transportation service which users hail using a mobile app similar to Uber and Lyft.

Unlike other self-driving solutions, Ollie can be built from the ground up and assembled in approximately 10 hours, as the majority of its components are 3D printed. Roger envisions a host of what he calls “microfactories” fabricating Olli’s all around the world, popping up as demand increases, and tailoring design specs according to customer requests and government regulations.

“The technology has been ready—fielding it is what has been hard,” said Rogers in an interview with AFP. “Local Motors is about selling (the vehicles) into the markets that are ready now,” he said.

IBM’s stake in the program is providing the user interface that allows passengers to “converse” with Olli, and input their destination using natural language. Meaning, riders can tell the vehicle to take them to “the movie theater,” ask for restaurant, and historic site recommendations and Watson will interpret the language syntax and respond. Streamlining this experience requires that each Olli is outfitted with more than 30 sensors and data streams from IBM’s cloud.

“Cognitive computing provides incredible opportunities to create unparalleled, customized experiences for customers, taking advantage of the massive amounts of streaming data from all devices connected to the Internet of Things, including an automobile's myriad sensors and systems,” said IBM's Harriet Green in a statement.

Starting mid-June, Olli will be touring the streets of Washington DC demonstrating the technology in action, with additional trials slated to take place in Las Vegas and Miami. Local Motors claims at least 50 countries have expressed interested in the new transportation solution, let alone the number of cities.

Learn more by checking out the clip below from IBM Internet of Things: