Local Motors: Rally Fighter

OK, a lot of people are calling the Rally Fighter an Open Source car.  That's an interesting claim, although by some measure, perhaps it is.

The company that builds it is called Local Motors, and the car design has been crowd sourced, so certainly, there is a measure of Open Source colaboration going on.

Yes, you can get the parts for the car and put one together for yourself, so the DIY aspect of Open Source is there.

And yes, you can make modifications to it, so the derivatives portion of Open Source is there.

But is it Open Source?  Let's take a closer look and see.

Local Motors is a company with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, that was founded in 2007.  Let's be clear about this, it is a for profit company.  But that does not mean it is not an Open Source company.

According to their "About" page, Local Motors says this about it's Open Source focus:
"Through open-source principles, Local Motors helps solve local problems, locally"

Some of the concept designs that are being hosted on the Local Motors web site are under a creative commons license.  Unfortunately, I can not find a creative commons / Open Source license for the Rally Fighter.  I also cannot find schematics, drawings, or CAD files for the vehicle or components.

But, you can buy the parts and put it together yourself:

It isn't cheap, but by standards of buying a vehicle like this from a traditional brand company, the USD$99,900 fully assembled Rally Fighter is a deal, and you can even opt in to visit one of their three (current) micro assembly factories to help them with the build of YOUR vehicle.  Yes, this includes drive train, 430HP engine, and wheels, which is cleared for on road use in all US states.

On the cheap, you can buy a Rally Fighter in a Box, which is delivered as a DIY kit, starting as low as USD$19,500 for kit 1 to USD$85,900 for kit 4, which is basically a disassembled "fully assembled" Rally Fighter, including engine, and wheels.

Here's where the question about it being Open Source, really comes in.  According to available information, they only plan on selling 2,000 units.  After that, the Rally Fighter will be shelved.

An Open Source project would make the plans available for anyone to make, themselves.  And also, there would be no restrictions on how many could be made, nor by whom.  So in all fairness, this isn't Open Source.

But like many industries new to Open Source, they are moving in a good direction, and they are just in need of some motivation to go all the way with Open Source.  They certainly have the right to do what ever they want, and also the right to make money, and they can do that, even if they were purely Open Source.  I think in the automotive sector, there are many people who would rather buy at least a kit, if not a fully assembled vehicle.

So if you want a really cool, street legal rally car, best be putting your order in to Local Motors.  The Rally Fighter may not be available for long, as a new built vehicle.