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The Era of Open Source Cars
An anonymous reader writes: An article at Ars Technica details how open source is slowly but surely working its way into the automotive manufacturing industry. A company named StreetScooter is flattening the design process, having designers and engineers work directly with suppliers right from the get-go. Another company, Local Motors, has built an open source community that's 50,000-strong, whose members include everybody from hobbyists to industrial engineers. Even the existing auto-giants are getting in on it: Ford has created OpenXC, a platform that is attempting to standardize how to get data out of a car's computer. The article concludes, "These various automotive open source advocates come at the topic from different backgrounds and with different approaches, but they can all recognize we've entered an era for open source cars that simply didn't exist before."
Open-source engine management is alive and well and has been for at least 8 years. I think you have screw loose if you drive a car with closed, proprietary systems in the wake of the On-Star/NSA police alliance, and all of the other privacy-invasive intrusions into your car and your life.
How many /.'ers practice what they preach WRT to their vehicles?
People have been building their own cars for decades and decades. Go get yourself a Jegs catalog. How about a Year One Catalog too. Go buy a kitcar magazine. Get yourself a welder. Kids these days. is everyone a moron now?
Afraid of laws or insurance? Buy a cheap donor car from the junkyard and strip it to the frame.
I don't know about the U.S., but in regions with sane laws, there is a rule: If something is only "licensed" and not owned, the license giver is fully responsible for keeping things in order, and he's not even allowed to bill you for repairing it, except he can prove negligence or misuse on your side.