Arizona startup Local Motors has launched what it says is the first self-driving vehicle to integrate the cognitive computing capabilities of IBM Watson. "Olli," a 3D-printed electric bus capable of carrying up to 12 people, has been introduced on public roads in Washington, D.C. and is scheduled to debut in Miami-Dade County and Las Vegas in late 2016.

Olli utilizes the cloud-based computing capability of IBM Watson Internet of Things to analyze and learn from high volumes of transportation data produced by more than 30 sensors embedded throughout the vehicle. Using the Local Motors open vehicle development process, sensors will be added and adjusted continually as passenger needs and local preferences are identified.

Olli is a 3D-printed electric bus capable of carrying up to 12 people. Image credit: Local Motors. The system leverages four Watson developer APIs—speech to text, natural language classifier, entity extraction and text to speech—to enable interactions between the vehicle and passengers. Passengers are able to interact conversationally with Olli during transit, discussing topics about how the vehicle works, where they are going and why Olli is making specific driving decisions. Watson empowers Olli to understand and respond to passengers’ questions as they enter the vehicle, including about destinations (“Olli, can you take me downtown?”) or specific vehicle functions (“how does this feature work?” or even “are we there yet?”).

Passengers can also ask for recommendations on local destinations, such as popular restaurants or historical sites, based on analysis of personal preferences. These interactions with Olli are designed to create more pleasant, interactive experiences for riders on the autonomous bus.

"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," says Harriet Green, general manager, IBM Watson Internet of Things, Commerce and Education.