WASHINGTON – Meet Olli, a self-driving shuttle that can carry up to 12 people and will be tested on public roads in Prince George’s County.
Local Motors unveiled the shuttle during the grand opening for its National Harbor showroom Thursday.
The Phoenix-based company makes 3-D printed vehicles. Olli, which was built with printed parts, is the first self-driving vehicle to integrate the cognitive computing capabilities of IBM’s Watson.
“Olli with Watson acts as our entry into the world of self-driving vehicles, something we’ve been quietly working on with our co-creative community for the past year,” said Local Motors CEO and co-founder John Rogers Jr. “We are now ready to accelerate the adoption of this technology and apply it to nearly every vehicle in our current portfolio and those in the very near future.”
Olli uses Watson’s cloud-based computing to learn transportation data that is produced by more than 30 embedded sensors in the vehicle.
Local Motors said that passengers will be able to talk to Olli by saying things like “Can you take me downtown?” or “How does this feature work?”
Olli will be on display for the public to see during its local testing this summer and into the fall. The testing will take place on public roads in and around National Harbor.
Later this year, it will undergo tests in Miami-Dade County and in Las Vegas.
Miami-Dade County plans a pilot program using several autonomous vehicles, including Olli, according to Local Motors.
