5 ms·

Oscar = Open Source Car

25 points by puente 16y ago

acangiano 16y ago
Like most open source projects, this has good intentions, good technology, and a terrible design. > Form follows function. Apple begs to differ, and they have been extremely successful thanks to their philosophy. Form very often shapes function and it's at the core of a product's usability. When designing something as complex as a car, form and function need to be equally considered every step of the way.
- beoba 16y ago
  Patches welcome. Also, keep in mind that Apple themselves adopt existing open source projects for their own use. There's no reason a similar relationship couldn't exist here. And the hobbyist crowd they're currently targeting are unlikely to give a shit.
- lsc 16y ago
  >When designing something as complex as a car, form and function need to be equally considered every step of the way. That's not how apple did it. Apple took an existing operating system that really only considered function, freebsd, and then built something pretty on and around it. I mean, I'm not criticizing apple; they followed the rules and built something the FreeBSD team could not have built, and most FreeBSD guys I know are pretty happy with what apple did. If you were going with the apple model for these cars, what you'd do is first build ugly cars that take an expert to drive that are extremely fast, utilitarian and reliable, but licence them under the BSD licence. Next, have some for-profit company take the design, put a lot of effort in to making it look nice, add features that make it easy for a novice to drive, and then sell the new cars for a whole lot of money. I mean, it's a great idea, but you need the FreeBSD of cars before you can have the Apple of cars.
- dman 16y ago
  I am recently trying to understand what people mean specifically by terrible design. Can you be specific about what you disliked about the existing design?
  - nagnatron 16y ago
    It usually means: "I don't like it".
ErrantX 16y ago
Looks dead? Forum is offline and the last update appears to be 2006?
- puente 16y ago
  Hi there! No its not. It might look like it. You are right! but that is because we've just upload an old version. The thing is that it wasn't working that smoothly and we had to take it down for improvements. Furthermore, some IPA issues occured with several OEMs, and we have to clear them first before we switch on the new version. Design follows form is basically a heuristic for order. We dont say that form is less important, not priorizin either. We are are just implying the logical design order; first you develop the core, then you make it look good! Its just another way more poetic to put it. Good night from Munich!!
gil 16y ago
Something like this was actually the idea I sent to Google Project 10^100. It was more specific because the goal was to have a cheap electric car but the design concept was very similar. I'm glad that someone had the same idea, will try to help :)
Devilboy 16y ago
Who can tell me about the legalities of home-made cars? What kind of hoops do you have to jump before using something like this on a public road?
- lsc 16y ago
  there's president. people have built 'kit cars' from plans for ages. here's what the CA DMV has to say about it: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/spcnsreg.htm http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/spcnsreg.htm It doesn't sound easy, but it doesn't sound difficult compared to actually building the thing.
  - lsc 16y ago
    did I really just say "there's president"? jesus.
superuser2 16y ago
You wouldn't download a car?

25 points by puente 16y ago

Like most open source projects, this has good intentions, good technology, and a terrible design. > Form follows function. Apple begs to differ, and they have been extremely successful thanks to their philosophy. Form very often shapes function and it's at the core of a product's usability. When designing something as complex as a car, form and function need to be equally considered every step of the way.

beoba 16y ago
Patches welcome. Also, keep in mind that Apple themselves adopt existing open source projects for their own use. There's no reason a similar relationship couldn't exist here. And the hobbyist crowd they're currently targeting are unlikely to give a shit.
lsc 16y ago
>When designing something as complex as a car, form and function need to be equally considered every step of the way. That's not how apple did it. Apple took an existing operating system that really only considered function, freebsd, and then built something pretty on and around it. I mean, I'm not criticizing apple; they followed the rules and built something the FreeBSD team could not have built, and most FreeBSD guys I know are pretty happy with what apple did. If you were going with the apple model for these cars, what you'd do is first build ugly cars that take an expert to drive that are extremely fast, utilitarian and reliable, but licence them under the BSD licence. Next, have some for-profit company take the design, put a lot of effort in to making it look nice, add features that make it easy for a novice to drive, and then sell the new cars for a whole lot of money. I mean, it's a great idea, but you need the FreeBSD of cars before you can have the Apple of cars.
dman 16y ago
I am recently trying to understand what people mean specifically by terrible design. Can you be specific about what you disliked about the existing design?
- nagnatron 16y ago
  It usually means: "I don't like it".

ErrantX 16y ago

Looks dead? Forum is offline and the last update appears to be 2006?

puente 16y ago
Hi there! No its not. It might look like it. You are right! but that is because we've just upload an old version. The thing is that it wasn't working that smoothly and we had to take it down for improvements. Furthermore, some IPA issues occured with several OEMs, and we have to clear them first before we switch on the new version. Design follows form is basically a heuristic for order. We dont say that form is less important, not priorizin either. We are are just implying the logical design order; first you develop the core, then you make it look good! Its just another way more poetic to put it. Good night from Munich!!

gil 16y ago

Something like this was actually the idea I sent to Google Project 10^100. It was more specific because the goal was to have a cheap electric car but the design concept was very similar. I'm glad that someone had the same idea, will try to help :)

Devilboy 16y ago

Who can tell me about the legalities of home-made cars? What kind of hoops do you have to jump before using something like this on a public road?

lsc 16y ago
there's president. people have built 'kit cars' from plans for ages. here's what the CA DMV has to say about it: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/spcnsreg.htm http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/spcnsreg.htm It doesn't sound easy, but it doesn't sound difficult compared to actually building the thing.
- lsc 16y ago
  did I really just say "there's president"? jesus.

superuser2 16y ago

You wouldn't download a car?