The self-driving minibus that has hit America

The company Local Motors has gone into partnership with IBM in order to create “Olli” the world’s first 3D printed self- driving, electric minibus.

The chassis of the vehicle is manufactured using a 3D printer which takes around 24 hours to print. The vehicle is then fitted with a battery and an IT system. It will also make use of IBM’s “Watson” Cognitive learning technology.

The minibus can carry up to 12 passengers and has already been a hit in Washington DC and will soon be rolling out to Miami and Las Vegas.

Olli can be hailed via an app much like Uber and passengers will be able to interact with Olli conversationally as the Watson technology will allow it to discuss destinations and other topics such as how it works. The use of the Watson technology will not distract Olli from its driving duties and according to the designers Olli can see much more and react quicker to situations than what a human could and can process high volumes of transport data via its 30 embedded sensors.

The US has pledged $4 billion to fund driverless vehicles so far as more and more cities are interesting in them.