July 23, 2025 • 6 mins
We continue Innovation Week here on The Country with Herd-i. Today we talk to the founder and CEO of G-Factor - a virtual reality and graphics tech company that specialises in driver and rider training, particularly for quad bikes and side-by-sides.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
New Zealand's Rural Revolution Innovation Week on the Country where
Heard Eye automatically assessing your herd's body conditions objectively, consistently, precisely.
That is Innovation Week here on the Country. It's brought
to you by Heard I two to go and this
is an absolute cracker. He's based here in Dunedin. He
is the founder and CEO of g Factor. His name
(00:22):
is Reese Gardner. Comes from a very well known farming family.
His father Howie, a former director of CRT or Farmlands
whatever it was back in the day and big in
wall as well. Reees, you're not farming anymore you used
to be. For the first time this morning, I tried
a virtual reality headset and it was a lot of fun.
(00:44):
And what we're going to talk about today is what
you are doing to prevent a huge problem in New
Zealand farming, and that is quad bike and side beside deaths.
Good afternoon, Yeah, how are you, Jimmy, I'm not bad
at all. Well, I'm all the better for having a
go on the virtual headset. That is wonderful technolog Tell
me about your background from a well known farming family,
as I said, And how did you get into this.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Fairly broad some farming in there on a steep sheep
and beef place in South Otago. Also some rally and
motorsport and motocross and things like that. So we were
coaching kids in a paddock to try and improve skills
there as part of our rally program, and realize this
doesn't scale very well. You know, we'd never look at it,
(01:26):
got wet, we couldn't do it. So we sort of
turned to simulation about ten years ago and thought, this
seems like a no brainer, plenty of naivety. We sort
of launched into that despite it being apparently sort of
impossible to achieve on small budgets. And yeah, that's ten
years ago, so we've shifted into VR since then.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Well, I know that you're in kind of still in
the startup phase of this company, g factor, but you
must be buoyed here in Dunedin that other entrepreneurs and
I think of Sirien Taylor with what he's done, are
the world's your oyster.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, funny enough, New Zealand actually a leader in sort
of graphics technologies and spaces like that with Ian and
obviously wed To workshop and stuff like that. So yeah,
we're probably in the right country to do it.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Talk to me about quad bike deaths and side beside
deaths and what g factor can do through your virtual
reality headset training to prevent them.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I think if we strip it down to the basics,
is that people learn by doing right. And if people
or anything like me, they can't really be told they
can't read something. You know, there's a big difference between
knowing something and understanding it. The cool thing about VR
is the ability to fall around and find out and
if you can build an understanding of consequences, we think
(02:38):
that you naturally move to better decisions. And if we
set it up like that, we also don't have to
tell anyone what to do. We can collect the war
stories and the lessons and insights from everybody who's had
an accident or a near mass and learn from each other.
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, one of the situations we looked at this morning
through the VR headset was recreated by you, and it's
actually a real life accident which led to the death
of a young man. I think in the US it
has been recreated with the blessing of the victims family.
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, it's pretty powerful. That family ended up starting a
safety foundation in the US as a result of that
accident around ten years ago, So we were able to
recreate that scenario where keys were left available to a
youth and unfortunately that you thought that they could jump
on that vehicle and ride it, and it did result
(03:34):
in a fatal accident. So I guess that loss has
been tended to some sort of powerful momentum there in
the US around awareness of safety and accidents for youth
on ATVs, which is part of what we're doing now,
But all of that applies in New Zealand as well.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Obviously, the US foundation you're working with promotes awareness as
you've been talking about around quad bikes, and the stats
on quad bikes in the US alone astounding ten million
quad bikes in the US contributing to at least forty
thousand serious or fatal youth injuries each year. Obviously these
(04:10):
aren't all farming related, but they're dangerous beasts.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, they are, and I don't think we should pretend
that they aren't. I kind of like what the helicopter
industry does around just recognizing the risk of the vehicles
that they're operating, and anytime there's an incident, they learn
from it, and they share it and they bring it
back so that everybody can benefit from I guess the
insights in that.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Res Gardner with us, founder and CEO of G Factor.
What are you doing for about educating New Zealand farmers?
I mean, can they, for instance, get a hold of
you and jump onto a virtual reality headset like I
did this morning, or are you going for a bigger
audience for instance? Are you working with Safer Farms?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, so we were with Safer Farms at Mister Creek
Field Days, which was fantastic, really good response out of
that and also the chance to have a lot of
discussions with different partners in the industry and figure out
how this could look. They've obviously got to focus on
broader farm safety and with ATVs as a focus as well.
(05:10):
So I think we learned a lot of lessons out
of that. We've come home and built a module around
seat belts and helmets on side by sides because that
constantly comes up. Lade a side beside myself for five
years when I was farming, and.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, because not many farmers built themselves in do they.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, it's a tricky one and you sort of get
it that you get in, in and out of the vehicle
all the time. A seat belt becomes a househole. Human
nature being what it is. We take corners of corners
over time, and you get away with something a few times,
you expect to get it away with it every time.
So yeah, seat belts and helmets, Yes, it's kind of foundational.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So really, what's the older mon aim for g factor
world domination?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I don't know. I think. Look, we'll try and reach
one hundred thousand kids in the US with a program
next year. We'd like to do more in New Zealand
around obviously ATV and so by side safety here as well.
That sits alongside schools programs around safer driving and road
safety for teenagers gaining licenses, plus also the launch of
(06:17):
a terrorist driving support.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Program fantastic technology. It's part of Innovation Week here on
the Country. Brought to you by heard I Risk Gardner.
Thanks for coming in. Sale to your mom and dad.
Your dad's a great tourist.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Thanks
New Zealand's Rural Revolution Innovation Week on the Country where
Heard Eye automatically assessing your herd's body conditions objectively, consistently, precisely.
That is Innovation Week here on the Country. It's brought
to you by Heard I two to go and this
is an absolute cracker. He's based here in Dunedin. He
is the founder and CEO of g Factor. His name
(00:22):
is Reese Gardner. Comes from a very well known farming family.
His father Howie, a former director of CRT or Farmlands
whatever it was back in the day and big in
wall as well. Reees, you're not farming anymore you used
to be. For the first time this morning, I tried
a virtual reality headset and it was a lot of fun.
(00:44):
And what we're going to talk about today is what
you are doing to prevent a huge problem in New
Zealand farming, and that is quad bike and side beside deaths.
Good afternoon, Yeah, how are you, Jimmy, I'm not bad
at all. Well, I'm all the better for having a
go on the virtual headset. That is wonderful technolog Tell
me about your background from a well known farming family,
as I said, And how did you get into this.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Fairly broad some farming in there on a steep sheep
and beef place in South Otago. Also some rally and
motorsport and motocross and things like that. So we were
coaching kids in a paddock to try and improve skills
there as part of our rally program, and realize this
doesn't scale very well. You know, we'd never look at it,
(01:26):
got wet, we couldn't do it. So we sort of
turned to simulation about ten years ago and thought, this
seems like a no brainer, plenty of naivety. We sort
of launched into that despite it being apparently sort of
impossible to achieve on small budgets. And yeah, that's ten
years ago, so we've shifted into VR since then.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Well, I know that you're in kind of still in
the startup phase of this company, g factor, but you
must be buoyed here in Dunedin that other entrepreneurs and
I think of Sirien Taylor with what he's done, are
the world's your oyster.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, funny enough, New Zealand actually a leader in sort
of graphics technologies and spaces like that with Ian and
obviously wed To workshop and stuff like that. So yeah,
we're probably in the right country to do it.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Talk to me about quad bike deaths and side beside
deaths and what g factor can do through your virtual
reality headset training to prevent them.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I think if we strip it down to the basics,
is that people learn by doing right. And if people
or anything like me, they can't really be told they
can't read something. You know, there's a big difference between
knowing something and understanding it. The cool thing about VR
is the ability to fall around and find out and
if you can build an understanding of consequences, we think
(02:38):
that you naturally move to better decisions. And if we
set it up like that, we also don't have to
tell anyone what to do. We can collect the war
stories and the lessons and insights from everybody who's had
an accident or a near mass and learn from each other.
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, one of the situations we looked at this morning
through the VR headset was recreated by you, and it's
actually a real life accident which led to the death
of a young man. I think in the US it
has been recreated with the blessing of the victims family.
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, it's pretty powerful. That family ended up starting a
safety foundation in the US as a result of that
accident around ten years ago, So we were able to
recreate that scenario where keys were left available to a
youth and unfortunately that you thought that they could jump
on that vehicle and ride it, and it did result
(03:34):
in a fatal accident. So I guess that loss has
been tended to some sort of powerful momentum there in
the US around awareness of safety and accidents for youth
on ATVs, which is part of what we're doing now,
But all of that applies in New Zealand as well.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Obviously, the US foundation you're working with promotes awareness as
you've been talking about around quad bikes, and the stats
on quad bikes in the US alone astounding ten million
quad bikes in the US contributing to at least forty
thousand serious or fatal youth injuries each year. Obviously these
(04:10):
aren't all farming related, but they're dangerous beasts.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, they are, and I don't think we should pretend
that they aren't. I kind of like what the helicopter
industry does around just recognizing the risk of the vehicles
that they're operating, and anytime there's an incident, they learn
from it, and they share it and they bring it
back so that everybody can benefit from I guess the
insights in that.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Res Gardner with us, founder and CEO of G Factor.
What are you doing for about educating New Zealand farmers?
I mean, can they, for instance, get a hold of
you and jump onto a virtual reality headset like I
did this morning, or are you going for a bigger
audience for instance? Are you working with Safer Farms?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, so we were with Safer Farms at Mister Creek
Field Days, which was fantastic, really good response out of
that and also the chance to have a lot of
discussions with different partners in the industry and figure out
how this could look. They've obviously got to focus on
broader farm safety and with ATVs as a focus as well.
(05:10):
So I think we learned a lot of lessons out
of that. We've come home and built a module around
seat belts and helmets on side by sides because that
constantly comes up. Lade a side beside myself for five
years when I was farming, and.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, because not many farmers built themselves in do they.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, it's a tricky one and you sort of get
it that you get in, in and out of the vehicle
all the time. A seat belt becomes a househole. Human
nature being what it is. We take corners of corners
over time, and you get away with something a few times,
you expect to get it away with it every time.
So yeah, seat belts and helmets, Yes, it's kind of foundational.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So really, what's the older mon aim for g factor
world domination?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I don't know. I think. Look, we'll try and reach
one hundred thousand kids in the US with a program
next year. We'd like to do more in New Zealand
around obviously ATV and so by side safety here as well.
That sits alongside schools programs around safer driving and road
safety for teenagers gaining licenses, plus also the launch of
(06:17):
a terrorist driving support.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Program fantastic technology. It's part of Innovation Week here on
the Country. Brought to you by heard I Risk Gardner.
Thanks for coming in. Sale to your mom and dad.
Your dad's a great tourist.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Thanks
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com