Open Source Car on the Horizon

PreacherTom writes "So here's a question: can open-source practices and approaches be applied to make hardware, to create tangible and physical objects, including complex ones? Markus Merz believes they can. The young German is the founder of the OScar project, whose goal is to develop and build a car according to open-source principles. Merz and his team aren't going for a super-accessorized SUV — they're aiming at designing a simple and functionally smart car. The OScar is not the only open-source hardware project out there: others include Zero Prestige, which designs kites and kite-powered vehicles, and Open Prosthetics, which offers free exchange of designs for prosthetic devices."

Great

[Necreia]

As long as it doesn't end up with a bunch of people bickering over what color to make the the cup holder.

Pic

[markov_chain]

Here's what it looks like: pic [wikipedia.org]

does that mean..

[User 956]

The young German is the founder of the OScar project, whose goal is to develop and build a car according to open-source principles.

Does that mean it will crash less than other cars?

If your open source car breaks down...

[__aaclcg7560]

Auto mechanics will come out of nowhere to help fix your car and get you on your way. A representative from AAA will complain that open source mechanics don't do a great job as traditional (but expensive) mechanics.

Re:Yeah but...

[le0p]

You forgot to tag it: itsatrap

Simpsons did it

[Rob T Firefly]

I still want to buy "The Homer" from Powell Motors. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Pic

[gardyloo]

Here's what it looks like: pic

      That's obviously the car on the Gnome desktop. Damn it! Why won't people learn that posting screenshots of new distros makes no sense if they all use the KDE/Gnome/XFCE/Fluxbox/your_preferred_WM_here paradigm?

Blue, dammit.

[93,000]

Blue or I walk.

Re:Pic

[Your Pal Dave]

I dunno, all this talk of customization makes me think it might look more like this [wikipedia.org].

Re:Well, if the speed and tailgating is auto-limit

[User 956]

Crashing can be reduced by reducing the dangers. The maximum speed is easy to set. Next, you can limit or warn about following distance. You could also detect a vehicle following you, and emit some warning brake pattern. Erratic (swerving due to some distraction/impairment) driving behavior could be detected and warned (perhaps it could switch to safer limits too).

I see where you're going with this. Perhaps if we put some sort of sentience in charge of controlling the vehicle, we could accomplish all of those things; maybe an organic neural net, but those take about 9 months to grow, and I think it's illegal to sell them since they ratified the 13th amendment.

Re:Yeah but...

[LordEd]

I do every day. Its called 'rush hour'.

Re:Great

[Ngarrang]

Awesome! A car built by committee! Gee what could possibly go wrong?

Re:Great

[AmberBlackCat]

I just know somebody is going to insist the dashboard be replaced with a command-line interface.