OScar (open source car)

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OScar is the first attempt to design an entire car (nowadays, also extended to other vechicles - bus, truck and motorcycle) using open source principles. The aim of the project is mainly to produce blueprints, using essentially open source CAD. The project is still far from producing a real car, but the progress has been continuous for some years.

The Goal of the project is not to produce a sophisticated car, but rather a simple and functional basic one, which answer basic people's transportation needs. A long term goal is also to introduce standardization in parts manufacturing (very much in the open source way) to use economies of scale. This is a radical change from the car industry current practices and business model, where every manufacturer has his own standards. This monopoly on brand specific parts often constitutes an important part of the manufacturers' revenues.

Among the challenges this car will have to overcome, before reaching the manufacturing phase, is conducting crash tests and also abiding by very strict security legislation and pollution norms in the car industry. In this way, has been proposed low-carbon alternative propulsion OScars (hybrid, hydrogen vehicle and electric versions).

[edit] See also

• Car safety
• Nanotechnology and NanoSafe
• Open source hardware

[edit] External links

• The project's Web site and hybrid / electric propulsion.
• OScar Wiki test: you need to website login: includes OS motorcycle, bus and truck.
• Green OScar.
• Article in Business Week
• Open Source Car on the Horizon an interesting thread in Slashdot
• About Standards in the car industry
• Discovery technology news
• Fiat500 design web.