Gina O’Connell
Strategic Advisor, Merlin Mobility Foundation
Gina O’Connell is the Co-Founding Principal of Comet Mobility. She is currently the Dataspeed Team Project Manager for the NAIAS Michigan Mobility Challenge in conjunction with a Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) $1.8MM grant; this program will transport Detroit Auto Show attendees autonomously from the Detroit Airport to Downtown Detroit via accessible ADA compliant AM General MV-1 vehicles; Gina is also building an onboard highly accessible UX experience as part of this project. She is additionally the PR Project Manager/Autonomy SME for the Indy Autonomous Challenge in which university teams from across the globe compete autonomously on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval using modified Indy Lights vehicles at speeds up to 200mph during October 2021.
At CES 2019, Gina headed the Comet Mobility Automated Vehicle Experience in partnership with IBM Watson IoT, Via Transportation, RDM Group/Aurrigo and a UK government mobility-focused consortium orchestrated by the UK Department of International Trade; this experience offered attendees autonomous shuttle rides directed by IBM Watson IoT voice command (a first at CES) and hailed utilizing a unique Mobility on Demand Augmented Reality Digital Booking System created especially for this experience by Via Transportation; more than 1200 rides were provided to attendees over the course of 4 days in Las Vegas, NV.
Gina was the Accessibility & Partnership lead on the 2019 Michigan Mobility Challenge autonomous vehicle pilot funded through a $2.1MM MDOT grant promoting, use of technology, and innovation to address core mobility gaps for seniors, persons with disabilities, and veterans.
Gina led the PwC Automated Vehicle Shuttle Demonstration (in partnership with Perrone Robotics) at PwC’s annual 2019 Emerging Tech Exchange event at Carmel Valley Ranch, Carmel, CA in conjunction with the Pebble Beach AT&T Pro-Am Golf Tournament. Additionally, Gina helped organize the Comet Mobility Low-Speed Ground Robotics Experience for the 2019 AUVSI Xponential Conference at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL which highlighted Automated and Accessible Vehicle Mobility, plus Agricultural and Defense solutions.
As Director of Labs for Local Motors, Gina founded the #AccessibleOlli program with IBM Corporation and the Consumer Technology Association Foundation to create "the world's most accessible cognitive self-driving vehicle" which debuted at CES 2018 and won the Best Auto Mobility Product/Service Award at the TU Automotive Conference in Detroit; it was also installed in the Smithsonian Design Museum's The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility 2019 exhibition. From 2017-2018 she organized and managed the #AccessibleOlli IBM AI XPRIZE team which was one of 59 teams remaining from a field of 10,000 entries; she also led the team that won the SXSW 2015 Interactive Innovation Best of Show Award for Strati, The World's First 3D Printed Car. Gina was additionally the lead for Local Motors on the Airbus Cargo Drone Challenge featured in 2016 at InterDrone Las Vegas, the Farnborough International Air Show, HackMIT, and HackPrinceton.
Gina has served on the Nevada Governor’s Manufacturing Sector Council, the UNLV Technology Assessment Committee, the executive board of FIRST Robotics Nevada, and the Consumer Technology Association's Self-Driving Vehicles and AI Working Groups. Gina has held leadership positions at the Japanese Consulate of New York, Fitch Ratings, Century 21, Yellowstone National Park, and Caesars Entertainment. Gina holds a B.A. from Marist College and has studied at Moscow State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).