IBM iX
“Reinventing the Wheel”
Roles
Genres
Challenge
IBM iX was exploring how Watson, cognitive computing, connected data, the Internet of Things, renewable energy, and experience design could reshape the relationship between people and their vehicles. The challenge was not simply explaining those technologies. We needed to make an emerging vision of cognitive mobility understandable enough that automotive and technology leaders could experience it, react to it, and imagine how it might change the future of driving.
IBM brought us its automotive research, data, access to Watson, and a broader vision for demonstrating the technology. I worked directly with IBM iX stakeholders as our teams translated that material into a digital product concept. Rather than building another presentation or conventional technology demonstration, we proposed putting the audience inside the idea through an immersive VR and 360-degree experience.
From Research to Product
I helped shape the experience from concept through launch, owning product and technical strategy, schedule, vendor coordination, delivery, stakeholder management, QA/testing, and deployment. I worked directly with IBM iX through presentations, product reviews, technical discussions, prioritization, and approvals while coordinating developers, Unity/VR developers, 3D artists, UX/design, sound designers, producers, QA, and DevOps.
The underlying research and data belonged to IBM; my role was helping determine how that intelligence could inform the product and become something people could actually experience. Watson provided the technological backbone while our product decisions focused on making concepts such as connected intelligence, contextual data, vehicle awareness, and cognitive interaction tangible inside a future driving environment.
In addition to leading product and technical delivery, I contributed hands-on throughout the end-to-end application build. That combination allowed me to move between stakeholder conversations, product decisions, multidisciplinary coordination, and implementation details while maintaining a clear view of how the complete experience needed to function.
Designing the Cognitive Driving Experience
We designed and developed a stylized 3D environment that placed the user directly in the driver’s seat. Rather than pursuing photorealism, the visual language used a deliberately faceted, polygonal treatment that reduced unnecessary environmental distraction and focused attention on the vehicle cabin, controls, information, audio, and interactions taking place around the driver.
That approach supported the larger product objective: technology was not meant to compete for attention inside the experience. It needed to demonstrate how a cognitive vehicle could understand its environment, surface relevant information, interact naturally with its occupant, and strengthen the relationship between driver and automobile.
Immersion Without Limiting Access
A key product decision was delivering the experience in two complementary formats: immersive VR and full 360-degree video. VR provided the strongest sense of presence, while the 360-degree version broadened access for audiences without compatible headsets and provided an alternative for people uncomfortable using VR or susceptible to motion sickness. Instead of making the emerging hardware a requirement, we designed the delivery strategy around different ways audiences could participate in the experience.
We applied similar thinking to sound. During concept development, we proposed using spatial audio to make the environment respond more naturally to the user’s position and orientation. We brought that approach to the sound engineers and incorporated it into the experience, allowing individual environmental sounds to occupy meaningful positions and distances around the user rather than behaving like a conventional stereo soundtrack.
Launch & Deployment
I led the product toward launch readiness for its debut at the 2016 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, coordinating QA, technical validation, deployment, stakeholder reviews, and the final work required to move the experience from development into a public-facing environment. At the show, automotive and technology leaders could step inside IBM’s vision of a Watson-enabled cognitive vehicle rather than encountering that future solely through research, diagrams, or presentations.
Following Detroit, IBM continued using the experience at events and demonstrations internationally. My delivery responsibility concluded with the Detroit launch, but the product itself went on to serve as a broader tool for communicating IBM’s cognitive automotive vision to audiences beyond its original debut.
Impact & Industry Exposure
Reinventing the Wheel transformed IBM’s automotive research and emerging cognitive technologies into an experiential prototype that industry audiences could see, hear, and inhabit. Instead of asking stakeholders to imagine what Watson, connected data, IoT, and contextual intelligence might mean inside a future automobile, the product gave them a tangible reference point for discussing that future.
The experience emerged alongside IBM’s broader exploration of cognitive mobility. IBM publicly discussed automotive research involving 16,000 consumers across 16 countries and used the Detroit auto show to explore how connected and cognitive technologies could change the relationship between people and vehicles. Later that year, IBM and General Motors announced OnStar Go with IBM Watson, described as an automotive cognitive mobility platform. While Reinventing the Wheel was a distinct experiential product, it helped make many of the same emerging ideas—connected intelligence, contextual awareness, personalization, and natural interaction—understandable through an immersive driving experience.
Featured
For me, the significance of the project went beyond VR itself. It demonstrated how research, emerging technology, experience design, and product strategy could be brought together to make a complex future-state idea tangible. My role spanned the full product journey—from helping determine what should be built and working directly with IBM stakeholders through multidisciplinary delivery, hands-on application development, testing, deployment, and launch.