Open Source cars

So, back in the day, if you wanted to get from point A to point B, you walked.

Something interesting happened between that time and today.  We stumbled upon a
number of technology advances that eventually led to the development of the car.  And the world became more connected.

But there's a problem.  If you want a car, how do you get one?  Chances are, you'd think that going to a car dealer is the only option.

But that's not the case, any more.

The idea that you can't just build your own car, flies in the face of everything children have been told by adults, for the past fifty years or so.  That they can be and do anything they want to be or do.

The reality is quite different, of course.  There are a number of reasons, but there are some core reasons.  Probably the top of which is, many of the technologies that go into making a car are proprietary.  That means that you would need a lot of money to buy the licensing to make certain parts of your car, if the technology was even available to license or buy individually.  And the other primary reason is, at least in most developed countries, one can't just build a car and put it on the road without it being tested to be safe.  And often, not just anyone can get those tests done.

Well, there are a number of people who have been working on those problems for a while, now.  And the result is a number of groups that are solving those problems.  The Open Source Car.

So it is probably best described at Wikipedia's Open Source Car article:
"An open-source car is a car with open design—designed as open-source hardware, using open-source principles."

If you haven't guessed by now, there's still a number of problems that need to be solved, but they are all political / legal.  As far as actually building a car, we don't have to build it from scratch.  Generally, we know what goes into a car.  If we don't know how, there's plenty of information, independent of Open Cars, that can help us with each part or system.  It is just that the Open-Source Car groups have put these solutions together as total packages, free for anyone to put together a car, royalty

and IP license free.

As far as the legal, there are many more people working to solve these concerns.  Each country, region or district may have their own rules and laws to contend with.  Of course, one can always go through the process and have their vehicle certified.  But in other cases, there are work arounds.  Some locations may have "experimental vehicle" laws.  Like those for ultra light airplanes.  Other's may have off road laws, which do not require all the safety features that are required to "run on the road".  And in other cases, in the right configuration, a motorized vehicle can be classified outside of these two scopes and can legally run on roadways, off road, or even side-walks and other public / private spaces.

In future articles, we will discuss many of these different groups as well as the different classes of vehicles.  There are probably many, many more than you even

thought of.  Years ago, we had the "kit cars".  They were still proprietary and we simply bought a kit and put it together.  Now, we can legally modify them, contribute directly with the communities for support for specific questions and concerns.  And we can even contribute by helping the groups, either with our own, specific skills to solve certain problems, or just to support others and spread the word.

Yes, some of our own, personal DIY projects might be ugly.  And not all Open Source Vehicles are as polished and sexy as what we might buy off the shelf.  Although many motor vehicle enthusiasts might argue that some of the dealer vehicles shouldn't be on the road, just on the virtue of their lack of esthetics.

Just to close off this article for now, the idea of an Open Car is a good one and is becoming a game changer.  Yet it isn't the only option.  There are many DIY, proprietary kit cars that can hugely reduce the cost of entry for people who need

motorized, pedal assisted, or even non-motorized transport that will effectively get us from point A to B, without a huge investment.  We will also provide future articles on these.

And also, even if you think this is absolutely not something that you could, or would, do.  Many of these open sourced vehicles are, or will be, available as fully assembled vehicles, at a very cost effective price point, by organizations that are popping up throughout the world.  You may find an open source vehicle dealer or manufacturer in you neighbourhood, soon enough.