The crowd-sourcing movement has made waves in astronomy, advertising, social networking, and even paleontology. Building cars, however, may not seem like the kind of thing you'd want to leave to the Web-surfing masses. But an innovative company called Local Motors begs to differ. The company produces custom cars that are designed, developed, and built by both Local Motors engineers and car enthusiasts in a collaborative process that occurs thanks to a robust Web presence and high-tech, small-scale production methods.
Local Motors is a small company of about 20 employees. It was co-created by John "Jay" Rogers Jr., a former Marine and Harvard grad whose love of all things automotive began in childhood with scale-model kits, his grandfather's Indian motorcycle, and a high school teacher who "was good at modding cars." After being disappointed by the possibilities of traditional aerospace and mechanical engineering careers, he came up with the idea of "co-creating" cars using open-source collaboration among engineers and site members. The members are an eclectic group of enthusiasts, engineers, and grease monkeys "who are joined only by desire," Rogers says.
In the Local Motors model, there are four phases of co-creation: Design, Develop, Build, and Mod. Basically, after registering for a free membership at Local-Motors.com, members can submit original designs for a car they'd like to see built; or they can critique and improve existing designs by voting, commenting, and marking them up using Aviary, an online image editor. The company holds contests for these "check-up" designs to choose the best. The top designs move on to the Development phase, where the concepts are analyzed for their viability to produce and sell. Here members can also vote on specific details of the car's design. And when a design is ready to move into the Build phase, members can suggest or submit vinyl "skin" designs (which are used instead of paint) and other mods they'd want on a model they would buy. Once a car has reached the Build phase, it is available to buy and build. In the Mod phase, members can suggest accessories and other modifications.
According to Rogers, this collaborative process is what's missing from today's large-scale car manufacturing.
"There are so many technologies that are coming out at a rapid rate in many countries, but the pace of innovation is very slow," Rogers says. "The 10- to 15-year paradigm of the car companies is very frustrating to me. We must be able to rapidly adapt to technology."
This idea pervades Local Motors, especially in the two main components of the business: its Web site and car production.
A Souped-Up Site
Obviously, if your Web site is a key component of your business, it has to be solid. For Local Motors, its site serves as the destination for more than 9,600 loyal members as well as a home for numerous embedded videos and more than 32,000 uploaded images. Knowing that the site could make or break the company, Rogers and his team spent two years developing the back end—which includes creating the code base via open-source input—before officially launching the company in 2007.
At Local Motors headquarters in Chandler, Arizona, Web designers and engineers use beefed-up HP Z-series workstations to maintain the site, as well as designing cars with SolidWorks 3D CAD and modeling/ design software, such as Mastercam and CATIA. As more members joined the site, Local Motors farmed image storage out to the cloud. Looking ahead, Rogers says that the development of "broad collaborative 3D software over the Web" will be a game-changer for Local Motors, because it will allow members and engineers to work on designs together in real time.
From Web to Pavement
All these CAD drawings and big ideas are pipe dreams if there is no actual product. The good news is that the first Local Motors car has rolled out of its micro-factory in Phoenix. The "Rally Fighter," as it is called, is an on-road, off-road hot rod that is jacked-up yet street legal. The price of the Rally Fighter is $59,000. According to Rogers, the Rally Fighter is the only Local Motors car currently being built because of "cost and money availability."
"We're not like the big car companies who can put billions into their car lines," he says. "Nor are we Tesla Motors, who received millions in government subsidies."
The company just announced, however, that it will begin building a vehicle for the U.S. military that is based on the Rally Fighter's frame design. Other designs that have reached the Develop phase include a Hummer-like SUV called the Ex-Ta-C and a roadster with a modern interpretation of a Model-T frame.
So far, some 135 members have put down deposits for their own Rally Fighter, and eight have been built so far. The chassis of the Rally Fighter is built in-house using water-jet, plasma, and saw cutting to create the steel frame. Other components are mostly off-the-shelf, including a transmission from a GM kit, thereby acceptable to most states' emissions testing. The car also employs the standard OBD II (also known as on-board diagnostic) system so your local garage can look it over with its diagnostic machine.
To build the car, an owner travels to Phoenix and spends two long weekends assembling the Rally Fighter with Local Motors engineers. Rogers says this gives the owners the unique opportunity to know their cars inside and out in a way that owners of big-brand cars can't. And owners' passion for the custom-car movement is apparent in their involvement in the site and their comments, such as the owner of Rally Fighter #60, who said "This would be the first 'new' car I've ever bought."
Looking Forward
The future of Local Motors, Rogers says, is bright and driven by technologies on the horizon. The company is currently scouting locations around the country for micro-factories, which each could employ up to 100 people and use cutting-edge production methods and materials to keep costs down and minimize waste and pollution. Rogers also says the advances in battery technology will affect Local Motors as well, and it will only be a matter of time before the company builds an electric car. Will Local Motors expand beyond open-source car mavens and go after Joe Minivan? In a word, no. Rogers is okay with being considered a niche company.
"The word niche gets a bad rap in the business world, but I think niche is a great word," he says. "Local Motors will always be in the niche. I'd like to serve hundred of niches, but one at a time."
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