Driving in the open

Anyone who has used Firefox or Linux knows the value of open-source design. When a community of people get together, driven by passion instead of profit, remarkable things can be achieved.

This is the idea behind Local Motors: the world's first open-source vehicle design. This isn't some Second Life virtual reality, this is the real deal, with a number of prototypes having already been tested, and dozens of cars already on order.

The first car they have built and tested is the Rally Fighter, which was designed as rally vehicle for the southwest. They've given it some pretty serious testing, as you can see here:




The advantage of this kind of project is that you can design vehicles for specific situations. Other designs Local Motors are looking at include small city-cars, road racers, and sports cars.

Open-source designing is just one idea that Inc.com expects to see more of in 2011. See the others in this article.