OScar (open source car)

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OScar is the first attempt to design an entire automobile (now 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 OScar project should not be confused with the OSCar company (now known as RiverSimple) devised by British engineer Hugo Spowers

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's current practices and business model, where every manufacturer has their 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, are to conduct crash tests and also to abide by very strict security legislation and pollution norms in the car industry. This has led to proposals for low-carbon alternative propulsion OScars (hybrid, hydrogen vehicle, and electric versions).

Contents 1 Similar projects 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Similar projects

For more details on this topic, see Open source hardware.

• c, mm,n: c, mm, n is a Dutch project to design an environmental friendly car using open source principles. ^[1]
• OScar (open source car): OScar is the first attempt to design an entire car using open source principles.
• OSCav : open source compressed air vehicle. ^[2]
• Open Source Velomobile Development Project: build your own velomobile.
• Open Source Green Vehicle ([1]): The Open Source Green Vehicle project is an attempt to design an environmental friendly SUV using open source principles.
• EVProduction club ([2]) is an organization with a wiki to design and produce open source electric vehicles and complements.

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[edit] See also

• Car safety
• Nanotechnology and NanoSafe
• Open design
• Open Source Green Vehicle This page links here and is a redirect with possibilities. You can help by eliminating the redirect command in the redirecting page and expanding it.

[edit] References

1. ^ c, mm,n Homepage and Wiki
2. ^ OSCav - Compressed Air Wiki - a Wikia wiki

[edit] External links

• The project's Web site and hybrid / electric propulsion.
• OScar Wiki test: to access, you need set up an account and log into website: includes OS motorcycle, bus and truck.
• Article in Business Week
• Open Source Car on the Horizon an interesting thread on Slashdot
• About Standards in the car industry on Slashdot
• Discovery technology news
• Sean Dodson, Can open source techniques be used to design a car?, The Guardian, April 12, 2007
• The Open Source Green Vehicle OSGV Project by the Society for Sustainable Mobility (SSM) of California is another open source car project with similar goals. The group focuses on a core electric drive architecture called "Kernel" and it is developing a Product Data Management (PDM) system tailored to open design hardware.