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Meet the Makers of an Exotic (Partially) 3-D Printed Car (2 Videos)
Last month, in a story headlined 3D Printed Supercar Chassis Unveiled, we promised video interviews with builders Kevin and Brad "in the near future." Here they are. First, we have Kevin Czinger, Founder & CEO of Divergent Microfactories. He says the way we build cars is more important from an environmental standpoint than how we fuel them, and that the way we make cars now is a lot less efficient and a lot more expensive than it needs to be. Divergent's first demo vehicle, the Blade, is a tandem-seating 700 HP supercar its makers say does 0 - 60 in 2.5 seconds. Price? No word yet, but it's safe to assume "plenty" might be an accurate guess.
In the second video, Blade project lead Brad Balzer goes into detail about how, why, and where they use 3-D printing, and explains the modular nature of their car chassis design. He says they don't need to change many parts to go from ultra-sports car to pickup truck. He also says that while Divergent Microfactories is working on cars right now, their manufacturing system can be applied to many different industries. Indeed, their long-range goal is to help people build microfactories making many different kinds of products faster, more flexibly, and for less money than it takes to make similar manufactured items today.
Note: The transcript covers both videos and has a little 'bonus' material in it, too.
In the second video, Blade project lead Brad Balzer goes into detail about how, why, and where they use 3-D printing, and explains the modular nature of their car chassis design. He says they don't need to change many parts to go from ultra-sports car to pickup truck. He also says that while Divergent Microfactories is working on cars right now, their manufacturing system can be applied to many different industries. Indeed, their long-range goal is to help people build microfactories making many different kinds of products faster, more flexibly, and for less money than it takes to make similar manufactured items today.
Note: The transcript covers both videos and has a little 'bonus' material in it, too.
Because three stories on the exact same non-story in one week is excessive.
99.999% of Slashdot readers will never even see one of these cars in real life, and that's on the unlikely assumption it ever even makes it into production. It's a safe bet that not a single Slashdot reader will ever actually drive one, let alone buy one.
As for your other assertion, sorry, but no. This was represented in the first of three stories we saw this month as a vehicle which would be manufactured en masse using 3D printing, with a completely unrealistic production level of 10,000 cars per year. So no, the point is not that it's "just a proof of concept". And even if that was really the case, what, precisely does it bring that's new to 3D printing? As far as I can see, nothing.
This is a totally unrealistic project that's just trying to build hype by using the latest buzzword. No more, no less. Once upon a time, it wouldn't have gotten a word on a geek site worth its salt. Now it gets three fawning articles in a week. It's a bit sad, really, and hence I vented about that. There are real stories out there which are far, far more worthy than this...