In Pictures
The whole journey — the garage builds, the record-setting cars, the Detroit Auto Show floor, Maker Faire, the open source assistive devices of R.O.A.R., and family.
Open Source Assistive Devices and Possibly Inspirational Stories.
The Talk · The Story
A Neurodivergent Maker’s Path from World Records to Giving Voice
I built a car in my garage — and it ended up on the main floor of the Detroit Auto Show. Two record-setting electric vehicles, a DARPA Grand Challenge 2 robot, an FDA-certified BMS. But the most important things I’ve built go beyond machines. The case I make: with the right tools, neurodivergent people can accomplish amazing things.
Available for presentations and panels
I’m an autistic, ADHD, dyslexic maker, and I’ve spent three decades turning “impossible in a garage” into shipped hardware. I built two electric vehicles that set multiple world records and a robotic car for the DARPA Grand Challenge 2. I hold a patent on EV charger-network communication and engineered an FDA-certified BMS for wheelchairs. I set out to build a car in my garage — and it ended up on the main floor of the Detroit Auto Show.
Along the way I appeared in the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, hosted the TV series Electrified, guest co-hosted ESPN’s Car Talk three times, and turned up as an extra on Corey and the Wongnotes.
Giving voice is the thread I’ve picked back up. Today I design the open source special-needs devices behind R.O.A.R. — Rex’s Open Assistive Resources — electronics I engineered, software I wrote both before and after AI, presented on a laser-cut aluminum stand I designed and built myself. I don’t build in spite of how my brain works — I build because of it. With the right tools, neurodivergent people can accomplish amazing things. I’ll digress along the way.
Off the bench, I ride my bicycle over 1,000 miles a year and take part in an annual month-long cancer-charity ride. And I care for my daughters so much I invented a way to adopt them in love, not law.
The whole journey — the garage builds, the record-setting cars, the Detroit Auto Show floor, Maker Faire, the open source assistive devices of R.O.A.R., and family.
Available for keynotes, talks, and panels at maker, technology, accessibility, and neurodiversity events.
The garage car that reached the Detroit Auto Show floor, the record-setting EVs and the DARPA robot — then the turn: the communication devices that gave two kids a voice, the open source assistive tech I build today, and the case that with the right tools, neurodivergent people can accomplish amazing things. I’ll digress along the way.
An honest tour of how an autistic, ADHD, dyslexic mind engineers hardware and software — what helps, what doesn’t, and why the right tools let brains like mine accomplish amazing things.
Commercial assistive devices are expensive, closed, and slow to change — they don’t have to be. What I’m building in the open with R.O.A.R., how it works, and how makers can help put it in more hands.
Also a natural panelist on: neurodivergent makers · open source assistive & medical devices · garage-to-FDA certification · DIY electric vehicles.
Maker, technology, accessibility, and neurodiversity events — I’d love to bring this story to your stage.
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