• Local Motors: Everything Is Better When It's Open Source
    25 replies, posted
[url=http://www.local-motors.com/rallyFighter.php][img]http://whcarleton.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/picture-9.png[/img][/url] Say hello to Local Motors. It's a car company. But this is no ordinary car company. You see, it has managed to combine three brilliant modern movements: crowdsourcing, open-sourced technology, and buying local. What they did was make a community where anybody at all can help to make a car. [highlight]Crowdsourcing[/highlight]: Handing a job off to a community instead of individuals. Local Motors crowdsources by hosting [url=http://www.local-motors.com/competitions.php?focus=compPast0]competitions[/url]. These competitions are in three general categories: [list][*][b]Design[/b], in which cars are designed based on given criteria. [*][b]Component[/b], in which individual components, such as gear levers or sun visors, are designed based on given criteria. [*][b]Skins[/b], in which the decorative skin of the car (paint job) is designed, sometimes with a general theme in mind.[/list] The entries are then subject to a public vote and/or a panel of professional judges, and a winner is decided. The winning entry goes on to be used in actual cars. [highlight]Open-Source Technology[/highlight]: This term refers to any technology in which the original, or "source" material is available to the public. When people post projects on the Local Motors website, it goes into a portfolio for that project. The material is then given a Creative Commons license, meaning it can be modified for personal use and redistributed with credit given to the designer. Everything that goes into making the car, whether it actually goes into the final product or not, is available to download. This creates an easy working environment for modders, competition participants, and really anyone at all. This means that designs go under extreme scrutiny not just from the behind-the-scenes crew, but hundreds or thousands of other people, increasing the overall quality and safety of every car. [highlight]Buying Local[/highlight]: Exactly what it says on the tin. Instead of having one inefficient monolithic factory, Local Motors went for the low-cost micro-factory model. Smaller facilities buy only what they need and only have to ship to a small local region, keeping costs drastically low. The spread of micro-factories across the nation stimulates the economy everywhere, not just in one town. It's a win-win-win. The company keeps costs down, the customers don't pay as much, and the community gets an economic boost. Although, since they have only just started, they only have the first one up in Phoenix, Arizona. Then again, they only have two cars being made right now, and only one is available for purchase. The one for purchase is the Rally Fighter, pictured above, and the other is the FANG (a potential Humvee replacement endorsed by DARPA), pictured below. In the future you can look at getting some of those competition winners. [url]http://www.local-motors.com/[/url] [highlight]How LM Puts It[/highlight] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azCRuwtE_n0[/media] [img]http://s3.amazonaws.com/lmi/user-images/cr87604t.jpg[/img]
vroom vroom
$59,000 - DAM...
[QUOTE=Aloveoftheworld;30778012]$59,000 - DAM...[/QUOTE] Trust me, the thing's worth every penny. Part of the video series they made on it: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-PHaK6Bnes[/media] 80+MPH Shock Test [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA7tOJXFhCw[/media]
My goal in life: apply this business model to the laptop market. Open-source laptops running open-source software! A man can dream...
Power to the people. I am happy at this.
That is so cool
I like the yellow military one. A lot.
Those cars look badass.
The Rally Fighter looks so cool, like a cross between a sports car and an offroad truck.
Fascinating stuff! I'm in engineering field, might give their competitions a shot from time to time. Have an idea to use their model of design to start up my own heavy machinery company, don't know how well would that end up going though.
I want that car so much.
6.2 litre only producing 430bhp. They should make the engine smaller
It's a friggin dune buggy on roids. :v:
sweet! Micro-factory in my area!
yay its in phoenix!
I want a car from these guys. Too bad they cost like hell + importing costs like hell.
I wish they wouldn't cost so much and be more available. It's time for me to get my first car, I'd love to be able to buy a nice, cheap design that somebody made. I guarantee there'd be quite a few of those.
[QUOTE=Arachnidus;30787429]I wish they wouldn't cost so much and be more available. It's time for me to get my first car, I'd love to be able to buy a nice, cheap design that somebody made. I guarantee there'd be quite a few of those.[/QUOTE] all required files are open source for manufacturing yourself. I can guarantee you if you made this car yourself you would save $20,000 at-least.
[QUOTE=LiLBliNg;30788671]all required files are open source for manufacturing yourself. I can guarantee you if you made this car yourself you would save $20,000 at-least.[/QUOTE] Well, then it sucks that I have absolutely no technical skills whatsoever. Or parts available, save a leased Nissan Rogue that belongs to my mom.
I'm going to be honest, These cars are basically just race cars with some plastic thrown on them(it's like HL2 buggy with a nice case thrown on it). Even though some of the designs look cool they still cannot compete against the actual car manifaturers because they lack the technology. And when you look at the price tag and the local motors car you're about to buy -You're to notice that this brand wont live for long, it's really expensive and its quite low tech. So you're not getting much with the 50k, And when you run into trouble you can't get help without paying half of the cars price. I can probably get a more practical car for 20k and this way i wont end up freezing my ass in a car that refuses to start.
[QUOTE=Mr. Kobayashi;30780417]6.2 litre only producing 430bhp. They should make the engine smaller[/QUOTE] Oo another car expert. Large engine displacements give more torque, which is what you want in an off-roader.
[QUOTE=ASmellyOgre;30778109]Trust me, the thing's worth every penny. Part of the video series they made on it: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-PHaK6Bnes[/media] [/quote] 8:55. EVERYDAY I'M HUSTLIN
[QUOTE=Mr. Kobayashi;30780417]6.2 litre only producing 430bhp. They should make the engine smaller[/QUOTE] It's got a fuckload of torque instead of high HP numbers. And when offroading or hauling you definitely want a lot of torque. While a on-road racecar benefits more from high HP numbers, since they're on a flat & even surface and are incredibly light. See the Mazda 787B for the exact opposite of the Rally Fighter
[QUOTE=papu2;30799559]I'm going to be honest, These cars are basically just race cars with some plastic thrown on them(it's like HL2 buggy with a nice case thrown on it). Even though some of the designs look cool they still cannot compete against the actual car manifaturers because they lack the technology. And when you look at the price tag and the local motors car you're about to buy -You're to notice that this brand wont live for long, it's really expensive and its quite low tech. So you're not getting much with the 50k, And when you run into trouble you can't get help without paying half of the cars price. I can probably get a more practical car for 20k and this way i wont end up freezing my ass in a car that refuses to start.[/QUOTE] That's because it [i]is[/i] a race car. It's designed to quickly get around a rally track, not anything else. That price tag is perfectly reasonable for a race car. I watch way too much Top Gear, so let's do this in British Pounds. The Rally Fighter is £36,748. Just browsing, I can see that this is a median price for a rally car, with roughly equal numbers of cars at £40,000 to £50,000 and £10,000 to £20,000. Furthermore, not only does this company use standard parts to make it simple to repair, but to own one you have to help make it, meaning you should have very little trouble repairing it. If you want practical road cars, wait until they make the Boston Bullet or the Green Apple.
Always drove past the Phoenix micro-factory and wondered what the hell was painted on the side and why.. :buddy:
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