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Olli is a 3D Printed, IBM Watson-Powered, Self-Driving Minibus (phys.org)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Phys.Org: Arizona-based startup Local Motors unveiled Olli -- a 3D-printed minibus capable of carrying 12 people. It's powered by IBM's supercomputer platform Watson and is designed as an on-demand transportation solution that passengers can summon with a mobile app. The company claims it can be "printed" to specification in "micro factories" in a matter of hours. They say it is ready to go as soon as regulations allow it to hit the streets. While Local Motors has developed the system to control the driving, IBM's Watson system is used to provide the user interface so passengers can have "conversations" with Olli. "Watson is bringing an understanding to the vehicle," said IBM's Bret Greenstein. "If you have someplace you need to be you can say that in your own words. A vehicle that understands human language, where you can walk in and say, 'I'd like to get to work,' that lets you as a passenger relax and enjoy your journey," he said. The vehicle relies on more than 30 sensors and streams of data from IBM's cloud. Olli will be demonstrated in National Harbor, Maryland, over the next few months with additional trials expected in Las Vegas and Miami.

50 comments

  1. Bingo by HelpTheNewOverlord · · Score: 2

    Bingo!!

  2. Not enough buzz words. by mark_reh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They need to throw in "drone" and "fuel cell" at least.

    1. Re:Not enough buzz words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Olli is a 3D Printed, IBM Watson-Powered, Self-Driving Minibus drone fuel cell.

      Happy?

    2. Re:Not enough buzz words. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Not invented by Elon Musk, not funded by bitcoin, doesn't have a guns and isn't being used to get more girls interested in tech.

      Does not belong on slashdot.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re: Not enough buzz words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL yessss. This is why I love slashdot. Posts like this.

      And of course all the tech stuff :P

  3. NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is *not* in any way, shape, or form "3D printed". This is a vehicle built from mass produced materials, with what appears to be an ungly 3D printed trim around the wheel arch.
    The glass, the tires, the frame, the motor(s)?, the batteries, the chairs, none of that was 3D printed.

    Then why call it a 3D printed bus? It would work perfectly fine without the ugly 3D trim.

    Could we PLEASE stop with the 3D printing hype?

    NO ONE is 3D printing cars or houses, OK?

    1. Re:NO. by ThluksatorStrauch · · Score: 1

      Yes, we ARE 3D printing houses.

    2. Re:NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, the nameplate was 3d printed. That is all that really matters.

    3. Re:NO. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      3D printing houses was probably the first big 3D printing business. They just simply did not call it that way.

      For the rest I agree :D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re:NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then go live in one and tell me how it goes.

    5. Re:NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are no 3D printed houses. There are 3D printed blobs, or at best something to start building a house. Give me a break already.

    6. Re:NO. by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Perhaps they are 3D Printing an IBM Watson to run each of these vehicles.

      If not, how does the attached IBM Watson peripheral scale? Can 10 vehicles operate at once controlled by the Watson? 1000?

    7. Re:NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are no such thing as "wood houses" or "brick houses". There are houses with parts made of wood and/or bricks but it's not a complete house. Give me a break already.

      The question is, why are you so stuck-up on the definition of 3D printed? Something that's been 99% 3D-printed wouldn't count? What's your threshold?

    8. Re:NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The difference, which you well know, is that houses have been around for millennia and people understand quite well what "brick house" refers to. No one is under the illusion that the bricks are the only part of the house.

      3D printing hype, on the other hand, has only been around for a couple of years (long years...) and people do certainly believe that one magical technology can "3D print" an entire house. These kinds of lunatics are all over the place.

      "Something that's been 99% 3D-printed wouldn't count?"

      Show me ANYTHING useful in its finished state that was 99% 3D printed and we'll talk.

      Even in the best case scenario, the 3D printing is just a way to make an unfinished part for specialist uses.

      You know that. But you also know there are delusional people who truly believe they'll be 3D printing entire cares at home, and after the smoke clears from the magic chamber they'll just climb in, turn the key and drive away.

    9. Re:NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The question is, why are you so stuck-up on the definition of 3D printed?

      Because the hype is nauseating and boring and takes away from real discussion. When was the last time 'and built on a cnc'ed lathe' headline worthy.

      3d printing is not new. The first patents on it were in 1970, using sintering of all things. The first cnc mill was in 1955, only fifteen years older than 3d printing. 61 vs 46 years.

    10. Re:NO. by HiThere · · Score: 1

      As far as I've heard, there are groups printing the shells of houses. They don't do the plumbing, wiring, windows, doors, or non-load-bearing walls. Or the final exterior finish. And I've probably left out a few other things that they don't print.

      P.S.: This is still highly worthwhile, if you want a house made of the material being printed (often concrete [but I don't think they include rebar]).

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    11. Re:NO. by HiThere · · Score: 1

      You've got a point...but it's a tiny one. There exist 3-d printers that can print in mixes of media, so that, in principle, you could print everything except the windows. This would be a very bad idea, as repairs would be nearly impossible, and it would also be very expensive as multi-media printers that can handle both metals and non-metals are quite expensive even before you start considering durability.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    12. Re:NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dammit, you never heard about 3D-printing using beton? How is it like to live in 20th century?

  4. What about safety? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    The article was very buzzwordy, but said nothing at all about any safety testing. Looking at the thing, my first impression is it might fall apart in a low-speed fender bender.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re: What about safety? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they have a 3D printer that good, why bother with a bus at all? Just disassemble the people at their source (saving the bits) and 3D print them at their destination (using the bits saved from other travelers).

    2. Re: What about safety? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use mp3 compression to transfer this much data.

  5. Hmmm... by Rei · · Score: 1

    I know that this isn't what they're referring to... but I immediately had a mental image of a bus controlled by a constantly learning neural net, with each of the passengers being able to reward or punish the network based on its behavior via a smartphone app (which also lets the AI keep track of who is on the bus, and maybe even where they are when they're not on the bus, for "predictive pickup"), and trigger some "destination" input neurons (which everyone would see on their app)

    Now, when I say "control", I mean "give directions to a driving program" (Google, etc) on where to turn, where to stop, etc, but not the low-level details. You could have the neutral net itself actually drive, but there's that whole "high likelihood of death to occupants and innocent bystanders" thing. Then again, if it was kept slow, well padded, and constrained from entering an area where it could run into traffic, drive off a cliff, or anything of the sort, such as walkways on a college campus.... but I think the more interesting one would be a version where the bus can go wherever it wants, with a "don't kill people " drive program on board.

    I can just imagine the bus starting stalking someone who tends to reward it a lot ;)

    --
    Monkeywrench Ex Machina.
    1. Re:Hmmm... by q4Fry · · Score: 1

      If there's a reward system, all it will take is one moderately determined misanthrope to crash all the buses. And when I say "crash," I mean the in the "car analogy" sense.

  6. Printed, my ass! by evanh · · Score: 1

    We're probably talking just the housings and maybe parts of the chassis. I beat all of the electrics, for a starters, are purchased.

  7. Watson, CEO and founder of IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watson was making 1% of the sale of IBM punchcard to the Nazi. Those punchcard were used in the census then later on the management of concentration camp slaughter.
    Great having his name on some tech.

  8. Doh! typo "bet" by evanh · · Score: 1

    Hate it when I do that.

  9. Impending therapy. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    ... a 3D-printed minibus capable of carrying 12 people. It's powered by IBM's supercomputer platform Watson.

    I wonder if Watson will ever end up bored and depressed like Marvin, having a brain the size of a planet, but seldom, if ever, given the chance to use it. Perhaps he too will have a small rat friend.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  10. "Powered" by Watson?! You people are insane. by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    It is controlled by Watson. What it is powered by, nobody is saying, not even the article.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:"Powered" by Watson?! You people are insane. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Powered by Steam :D

    2. Re:"Powered" by Watson?! You people are insane. by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      That's great news, because it should cost a lot less to get a ride in Olli since there's always something on sale on Steam.

  11. tell it to drive to chicago and end up in Toronto by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    Just hope it stops for customs and does not think it's just an tollbooth to plow though.

  12. The real future by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Some people thing self driving cars are the future, but the REAL future is when you ordering an Uber means Olli comes and poops you out a car to use however you like for the day, then it just dissolves and the sewer system routes the remnants back to Olli.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:The real future by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      We could do that back in the 70's with $.50 of blotter acid.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re: The real future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Price of acid now. $10 a hit. :( fucking inflation.

  13. coming by Tom · · Score: 1

    Been saying that for almost two years now: The real future of self-driving cars is not to replace your car in your garage, but to replace taxis and busses. We have everything around it - we have taxis, we have rental cars and car-sharing. A self-driving car is the perfect merger of all of these. Summon when you need it, when you're done no need to search for parking, it just goes its merry way to the next customer or to find parking by itself if it needs to wait for one.

    The first company to make this happen will replace Uber before they know what hit them.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    1. Re:coming by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I nevertheless give up my car ... I don't think there are many places in Europe where you "need" a car.

      Also: if my car was self driving, I still could read a book while it goes where I ever had to drive myself.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    2. Re:coming by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      The first company to make this happen will replace Uber before they know what hit them.

      Except that Uber is one of the companies most actively researching auto-driving vehicles.

  14. Wow, we really live In the Future (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So now they're printing tires, and motors, and batteries (or is it engines and transaxels?), and full up GPS nav systems, and sensors, and Unicorns that piss large panes of automotive glass.

    1. Re:Wow, we really live In the Future (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, computers got better, therefore everything else gets better too, at the same rate. Soon, we'll 3D print warp drives and pre-made Mars condos (with 3D printers in each room).

      Truly, the future is amazing.

    2. Re: Wow, we really live In the Future (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kind of like the replicator in Star Trek? That's the future my friends.

  15. Worlds biggest patent troll trolls on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    So 3D printed, self driving, Watson branded to pretend they've been at it a while... looks like they're going to patent around self driving cars (with minor ransome strip patents), to seize as much of the money for their troll patent business as they can.

  16. Re:Niggers! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are a disgusting bigot. What is your problem? Why do you hate niggers so much?

    Maybe you should seek psychiatric help.

  17. Focus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The challenge with self-driving vehicles is the self-driving bit, not user input. If a punch card were used to tell the car where you want to go and it was able to get you there safely the nut is still cracked.

    1. Re:Focus by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I'm not going to believe that there are self-driving cars until they can demonstrate that they can pick one up in Los Angeles and plop it down in Denver and have it go on it's merry way. This with all possible weather conditions aside.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  18. Not by markdavis · · Score: 1

    >"While Local Motors has developed the system to control the driving, IBM's Watson system is used to provide the user interface"

    So it is NOT powered by Watson. Drat, and all this time, I thought my computer was powered by the firmware in my monitor or mouse...

  19. Olli? by Nunya666 · · Score: 1

    Wow, I didn't know that Oliver North was still around. He's one strong dude if he can carry 12 people!

  20. Wonderful World by gabriellalustar · · Score: 0

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  21. Marvellous idea by gabriellalustar · · Score: 0

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