Open-Source Car Project Gears Up

Dec. 18, 2006 — The open-source movement responsible for software like Linux and Mozilla's Web browser, Firefox, is proving contagious: A German entrepreneur is applying the same approach to automobile design.

Former BMW employee Markus Merz, who now owns an automobile consulting firm in Dingolfing, Germany, calls his project Oscar, shorthand for Open Source Car.

The idea behind open source development is to allow anyone to copy, modify and redistribute ordinarily secret information about a technology without paying royalties to the original developers.

The project, which Merz calls his hobby, is bringing together automobile engineers, designers and other experts on Web forums to exchange ideas on how to improve mobility — specifically, car design.

The hope is that, unrestrained by patents and other conventional restrictions such as profit margin, marketing and technology, a community of experts will come up with fresh solutions.

"We are working in front of the computer to generate stuff that people in front of a computer will use. It's boring," said Merz. "It would be a great idea to combine the idea of open source with the idea of hardware, and a car is hardware that is interesting."

A Web site serves as headquarters for the concept car. Participants interact according to a few simple rules about performance specifications.

For example, the car will be about 14 feet long and 6 feet wide, and will have four doors. It will be powered by electricity and have a maximum speed of 90 mph.

Participants discuss their ideas on Web forums organized by four main topics:

*integration, which includes design, package and distribution

*modules, which includes discussion of the body, engine and safety systems

*tools, which includes conversations about computer-aided design tools and simulations

*and network, where participants discuss potential partnerships.

A group of technicians heads each forum to ensure that the best ideas are moved forward to computer modeling and testing. From there, anyone, including car manufacturers, will be encouraged to build the car.

There will be no patents, and no proprietary data.

"The most effective tool you can have to get anything done is passion and creativity and that needs to be unleashed, and then it's much more powerful than money," said Lukas Neckerman, head of automotive business development at a financial services company in Munich. Oscar is a hobby for Neckermann, too, and he is responsible for communications.

Mechanical engineer Achim Schillak agrees that people have a desire to contribute their ideas to innovative projects, and if they can't do that in their current occupation, they will find another outlet. Schillak wrote a case study about Oscar while he was studying business management at New York University.

He does believe that there are some limitations applying the open source approach to cars, though.

"After design studies and calculations, you have to build a prototype and crash test it and that is a major difference to developing some software," said Schillak.

And Oscar is not set up to build the car. But Merz has faith that any of several small auto manufacturers could eventually take the concept to its three-dimensional form.

"The greatest success for me would be if I can ride in this car," said Merz.