IBM Links French Rail, BMW Sports Cars to Widen Watson's Appeal

IBM's artificial intelligence arm is striking deals with the French railway to help it head off costly repairs, and with the world's largest car-parts maker Bosch to create cars and appliances that can self-order worn parts. The deals with France's SNCF national rail system, Robert Bosch GmbH, and payment processor Visa Inc., were announced Thursday alongside the opening of IBM's $200 million global headquarters for industrial applications of software in Munich, and are part of a push to spread its Watson computing service in Europe. Watson and IBM's $18 billion "cognitive computing" group are a rare bright spot amid a years-long slump in sales and earnings, and the company is counting on the unit as its long-term growth driver. IBM has called Watson a connector across all its services and software and has announced a large number of deals to build out Watson-related projects. A dozen BMW engineers are also working with International Business Machines Corp. on site to outfit the auto-maker's $138,000 i8 hybrid sports car with controls that respond to a drivers' voices and make recommendations for route changes and stops based on fuel levels and the weather.