OScar (open source car)

Design proposal - 4 wheeler

Exploded view - 3 wheeler

OScar is the first attempt to design an entire automobile (now also extended to other vehicles: 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.^{[citation needed]} The OScar project should not be confused with the OSCar company (now known as Riversimple) devised by British engineer Hugo Spowers

Goal and challenges

The goal of the project is not to produce a sophisticated car, but rather a simple and functional basic one, which answer people's basic 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).

Similar projects

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

• Local Motors an open source automobile company
• Riversimple Urban Car
• c, mm,n: c, mm, n is a Dutch project to design an environmental friendly car using open source principles.^[1]
• OSCav : open source compressed air vehicle.^[2]
• Open Source Velomobile Development Project: build your own velomobile.
• Open Source Green Vehicle: The Open Source Green Vehicle project is an attempt to design an environmental friendly SUV using open source principles.^[3]
• EVProduction club is an organization with a wiki to design and produce open source electric vehicles and complements.^[4]
• Open Air Vehicle Project is a non-profit organization with a goal to combine the best for an open source electric vehicle. Called Open Air because air suggests more freedom.
• Trev (two-seater renewable energy vehicle)

See also

• Car safety
• NanoSafe battery
• Open design

References

1. ^ c, mm,n Homepage and Wiki
2. ^ OSCav - Compressed Air Wiki - a Wikia wiki
3. ^ http://www.osgv.org/
4. ^ http://evproduction.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

External links

• The project's Web site
• Video on YouTube
• Article in Business Week
• Open Source Car on the Horizon an article 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