Open-source cars? I like the idea, but ...
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 11:50 AM Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and famous for his “Free” and “The Long Tail” books, has a provocative story in this month’s Wired magazine about an open-source car maker called Local Motors. 
Local Motors CEO Jay Rogers is taking all kinds of innovative approaches in launching the new Rally Fighter off-road car. (Wired.com)Open-source car maker.
Think about that.
Local Motors is a few months away from releasing its first model, the $50,000 off-road Rally Fighter. Local Motors tapped real people to “crowdsource” the design and help weave currently available parts into the finished product. “Each design is released under a share-friendly Creative Commons license, and customers are encouraged to enhance the designs and produce their own components that they can sell to their peers, Anderson writes.”
Ok, that’s cool. Kinda like a big auto app store.
But here’s the real kicker: Customers will build the cars at “local assembly centers.” That takes the kit-car concept a step further, moving assembly out of home garages to larger places where more hands and advisers can pitch in. Could this lead to something bigger, where truly custom and unique cars (as opposed to personalized from a palette of fixed choices) become commonplace?
