Olli Local Motors
Olli serves around 100 workers a day at the Euref Campus
Local Motors’ 3D-printed self-driving vehicle, Olli, first came to our attention last summer. Now, Olli has finally been deployed by a client of the motorcar manufacturer.
Euref Campus, located in Berlin, hosts more than 100 companies, and 2,500 employees, from the energy, sustainability and mobility industries. Of those 2,500 workers, Olli is thought to serve at least 100 every day.
Seating up to twelve passengers at a time, Olli can drive at around 25 miles per hour and is designed to take people from A to B, across large campuses for example. Olli drives itself using overlapping sensors, such as radar, lidar and cameras to see further ahead and react more quickly than a human. The vehicle is also controlled by an app, which allows the user to find existing routes, track movement and pay fares.
Electrically powered, Olli not only reduces the output of emissions in urban areas, but it can also talk to its passengers. Additionally, its self-driving software helps the vehicle learn on the move. Gathering data as it travels, Olli’s learns from real-world scenarios, such as how to slow down if a person walks out in front of it, or how best to make a tight turn.
Prior to Olli’s conception, Local Motors was involved in the 3D printing of the Strati electric car. Here, Local Motors, along with Cincinatti Inc. and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, proved 3D printing’s worth in automotive manufacturing. Yet, just a few years later the technology would be implemented in a different way to create Olli.
Local Motors
Olli outside Local Motors HQ
Olli outside Local Motors HQ
“The Strati project was a study in manufacturing methods,” James Earle, Advanced Manufacturing Engineer at Local Motors, told TCT in 2016. “Specifically to figure out if large-scale additive manufacturing could be used to produce complex structures like a car. We showed that it was indeed possible. From that point we were able to step back and figure out where else in the process of car production additive manufacturing could be beneficial.
“The plastic panels on Olli were thermos-formed on 3D-printed moulds. We printed the moulds using Big Area Additive Manufacturing, machined them on our 5-axis route, and then hand finished.”
As Local Motors steps up its scale of production of Ollis in 2017, German railway company, Deutsche Bahn is testing one of the vehicles in Schoneberg, Berlin, with a view to bringing around 50 into operation later in the year.
Deutsche Bahn’s partnership with Local Motors was born before Olli was designed. Innoz, the research and development arm of Deutsche Bahn, was involved in bringing Olli to the Euref Campus. Local Motors was assisted by Innoz in the Berlin Urban Mobility Challenge 2030, from which Olli was derived.
Innoz has also launched a six-month Olli pilot programme itself. The department is planning on using the self-driving vehicles to connect its campus to the nearest Deutsche Bahn railway station later this year.
