The Open Source Green Vehicle
Detroit's auto manufacturers are struggling, but innovation is alive and well in others regions. For example, there's another open source project to design a car , this one with a green perspective. (See our blog post of May 30, 2007.)
The Society for Sustainable Mobility has launched an Open Source Green Vehicle project with the goal of creating a crossover SUV for the American market that achieves at least 100 mpg.
The Society plans to compete for the Automotive X Prize:
The Automotive X PRIZE will invite teams from around the world to focus on a single goal: design, build, and sell super-efficient cars that people want to buy.
Why an Automotive X PRIZE?
- Because today's oil consumption is not sustainable - our current use of oil endangers our health, our economy, and the political and social stability of the world.
- Because 40% of world oil output fuels the automotive industry - and, in the U.S., 65% of oil consumption is in the transportation sector.
- Because automotive emissions contribute significantly to global climate change.
- Because there are no mainstream consumer choices for clean, super-efficient vehicles that meet market needs for price, size, capability, image, safety and performance.
- Because the automotive industry is stalled - legislation, regulation, labor issues, manufacturing costs, legacy costs, franchise laws, obsolete technology, consumer attitudes, and many other factors have combined to block breakthroughs.
- Because increases in engine efficiency have been "spent" on increased vehicle power, acceleration, and weight, rather than on increased fuel economy.
- Because we believe there is great opportunity for technological change.
If you were CEO of Ford, or GM, would you put a team on winning the X Prize? Or would the potential embarrassment of losing outweigh the potential benefit of winning?
In the world of open source, a team of free-lancers from around the world could quite potentially out-design and out-engineer Detroit's best.
Creative destruction indeed!
posted by Langdon Morris @ 9:48 PM
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1 Comments:
Thank you, Langdon. I read your post regarding our OSGV Project. I certainly like the part where you say we could "out-design", "out-engineer" the big 3.
We have engineers in our team who had design a spacecraft that flew to Pluto, a ground vehicle that can survive 75g shocks and EMPs from nuclear blasts, and aircraft that flys at Mach 3. I have no doubt in my mind that we could beat the mainstream automakers.
The collective know-how is well beyond what a traditional car company would have.
In a lot of ways, the engineering part is easy. It's how we can bring the finish product to the market and to understand the market in the first place that is hard.
This is particularly challenging for an open architecture hardware.
I think we are close to a solution here by defining the licensing structure that encourage private investments while maintaining full control of the organization's charter.
I do not expect the big 3 to compete in the X Prize contest. The biggest reason being, why would you shoot yourself in the foot by telling your customers that you have a 100MPG car when you are still happily selling a 35MPG hybrid? US automakers have invested billions of dollars in their current fleet hybrids and they will NOT let that go until they make the money back.
Very soon, you will find out that those 35MPG hybrids are going to the next problem.
I appreciate your support and we are open to any suggestions.
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