Wikipedia

Local Motors

Local Motors was an American motor vehicle manufacturing company focused on low-volume manufacturing of open-source motor vehicle designs using multiple microfactories. It was founded in 2007 by John B. Rogers Jr and had headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.[1] The company's lineup before its closure included the Rally Fighter and their 3D-printed Strati and Swim vehicles. The company developed vehicles using 3D Printing and utilized vehicle designs provided by the online community. In 2016, the company introduced an autonomous electric-powered shuttle named Olli.

Local Motors
Company typePrivate
IndustryMotor vehicle manufacturing
Founded2007; 17 years ago (2007)
DefunctJanuary 14, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-01-14)
HeadquartersPhoenix, Arizona
Key people
Vikrant Aggarwal (CEO)
Websitelocalmotors.com

Community edit

Local Motors' website is a community focusing on vehicle innovation. The content is created by the users who discuss designing, engineering, and building innovative vehicles. Members contribute their own ideas and projects which are discussed with the community.[2]

Co-creation is a technique used by Local Motors, General Electric, and LEGO to enhance new product development.[3][4] Select organizations partnered with the company to facilitate co-creation of their products including US Army,[5] Domino's,[6] and Airbus.[7] Local Motors used a co-designing type of customer co-creation in which the selective process is made by its community and some features such as frame and structure are scoped by the company. Firstly, users created drawing designs and the decorative ideas on their own style. Although the users are novices or experts, all users had the opportunity to participate in this step. After that users presented their designs on the website, and the best design selected by people in the community would be developed by the company. Finally, the company launched the co-designing car into the market. Using the co-creation method, the company gained customer's engagement and loyalty.[8]

One of the biggest community driven competitions was hosted by Local Motors in collaboration with Airbus .[9] This competition was hosted in Berlin, which is one of the tech hubs of Deutsche Ventures.

Propositions edit

The propositions that Local Motors offered are:

  • The car is produced and designed using the co-designing type of co-creation, which is called crowdsourcing.
  • The car was produced in 18 months, which is faster than the usual process by five times.
  • They were almost always road legal cars.
  • About $3 million was spent to develop the car, which is less than the amount spent on commercial models by mass automakers.

The company managed to efficiently spend about 3 million dollars by rethinking the car's features, so they designed a five-point seat belt, which costs $10, instead of developing an airbag, which would cost them $6 million.

Rally Fighter edit

 
Local Motors Rally Fighter
Main article: Rally Fighter

The Rally Fighter[10] was the first model produced by Local Motors and is an open sourced vehicle. The car was introduced in 2009 after 18 months of development, which constitutes a record time to market compared to normal automobile industry standards, by applying innovative technologies and crowd sourcing techniques.[11] As the company described it, the Rally Fighter is "a fully capable off-road prerunner, with the amenities and luxuries of an every-day on road vehicle".[12]

Strati edit

 
Strati (automobile) by Local Motors
Main article: Strati (automobile)

In collaboration with Cincinnati Incorporated and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Local Motors manufactured Strati, the world's first 3D printed electric car.[13] The printing took 44 hours to complete, and was witnessed by a live audience at the 2014 International Manufacturing Technology Show in McCormick Place, Chicago.[14] The car consists of 50 individual parts, far less than a traditional vehicle (which is manufactured with roughly 30,000 parts).[15] The Strati was designed by Michele Anoè,[16] a member of the Local Motors community, and is produced in small quantities to serve strategic partnerships, such as with NXP Semiconductors.[17]

LM3D Swim edit

In 2015, the company debuted a 3D-printed car named the LM3D Swim.[18] It was designed by Kevin Lo, a member of the Local Motors community.[19] The materials used are 80 percent ABS plastic and 20 percent carbon fiber. The vehicle uses technology provided by IBM that offered IoT connectivity.[20] The Swim is currently on display at the company's location in National Harbor, Maryland.

Olli edit

 
Olli

In 2016, the company unveiled an autonomous, electric-powered bus.[21][22] The vehicle was designed by Edgar Sarmiento, initially named the "Berlino" from the Urban Mobility Challenge: Berlin 2030. The French tech entrepreneurs Damien Declerq and Gunnar Graef have been instrumental in organizing the challenge in Berlin.[23] The vehicle was built by Local Motors and has IBM Watson technology installed to provide a personalized experience for riders. The vehicle was demonstrated live to their online audience on Facebook Live[24] at a media event in National Harbor. On January 2, 2018, Local Motors received a pledge of up to a $1 billion in financing and operational support to customers of Olli from Florida-based Elite Transportation Services (ETS) with additional funding of $20 million from Texas-based Xcelerate.[25]

Olli was manufactured in Knoxville, Tennessee using additive manufacturing techniques, including 3D Printing.[26] Traditional Steel-Tube chassis Olli vehicles were produced in Chandler, Arizona.

Miami-Dade County, the State of Nevada and the Danish Vesthimmerland Municipality expressed interest in using Olli on their roadways.[27][28][29] As of January 2020, Olli has been deployed at the United Nations ITCILO campus in Turin, Italy to provide transport shuttle to employees and guests within the campus.[30]

On December 17, 2021, an Olli bus operated by Durham Region Transit in Whitby, Ontario being driven in manual mode suddenly lost control and crashed into a tree. The attendant was critically injured and rushed to a trauma center in neighbouring Toronto[31]

Another pilot, West Rouge Automated Shuttle program, was announced in spring 2021 by the Toronto Transit Commission from Rouge Hill GO Station, but the service was never started after the demise of Local Motors in 2022.[32]

Locations edit

Local Motors had facilities in Phoenix, and Knoxville.

In February 2017, Local Motors closed its Las Vegas location.[33]

Closure edit

Local Motors closed on 14 January 2022, with their closure announced by Chris Stoner, their former VP of sales and customer success.[34]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ “About Local Motors”, Local Motors Website
  2. ^ "Local Motors makes crowd-sourced and 3-D cars". Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  3. ^ Muller, Joann. "Big Ideas, Small Scale: How GE Is Using The Wisdom Of Crowds To Design Better Appliances". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  4. ^ "Network meeting 25/11: LEGO engaging consumers in Open innovation, co-creation and mass-customization. | Leaderlab". leaderlab.com. November 16, 2010. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  5. ^ "REF Rapid Equipping Force - United States Army". www.ref.army.mil. Archived from the original on 2015-04-21. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  6. ^ Buss, Dale. "Domino's Gets Into the Car Business With DXP Pizza-Delivery Vehicle". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  7. ^ "Look At These Wild Drone Concepts Airbus Thinks Are The Future". 14 July 2016. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  8. ^ "" Local Motors " New generation of product co-creation – Cattaleeya". Retrieved 2017-08-11.
  9. ^ "Meet the judges for the Airbus Cargo Drone Challenge | Local Motors". 2016-06-06. Retrieved 2016-07-05.
  10. ^ "The Rally Fighter – Local Motors Rally Fighter". rallyfighter.com. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  11. ^ "Local Motors makes crowd-sourced and 3-D cars". Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  12. ^ "Rally Fighter - Local Motors". 20 May 2008. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  13. ^ Gastelu, Gary (3 July 2014). "Local Motors 3D-printed car could lead an American manufacturing revolution". Fox News. Archived from the original on 8 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  14. ^ Franklin, Dallas (15 September 2014). "Made in Chicago: World's First 3D Printed Electric Car". KFOR-TV. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  15. ^ Chhabra, Esha (December 30, 2015). "The 3D Printed Car That Could Transform The Auto Industry: On Sale In 2016". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  16. ^ "The 3D-Printed Car Is All the Buzz". www.imts.com. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  17. ^ "Local Motors, NXP unveil 3D-printed car with self-driving, IoT technology | Local Motors". 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  18. ^ Bruce, Chris (November 6, 2015). "The LM3D Swim from Local Motors is the first 3D-printed car you can buy [w/video]". Autoblog. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  19. ^ "Startup Plans to Begin Selling First 3D-Printed Cars Next Year". NBC News. June 23, 2015. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  20. ^ "Connecting the road with Octoblu, IBM and Local Motors". Archived from the original on 2016-06-23.
  21. ^ Warren, Tamara (2016-06-16). "This autonomous, 3D-printed bus starts giving rides in Washington, DC today". The Verge. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  22. ^ Counts, Reese. "The Local Motors Olli is a driverless EV minibus with IBM Watson inside". Autoblog. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  23. ^ "Berlino 3.0 - Smart mini bus system | Local Motors". 2015-05-01. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  24. ^ "Local Motors - Timeline | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  25. ^ "Local Motors Secures Over $1 Billion In Financing For Olli Customers (Press Release)". PR Newswire. January 2, 2018. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  26. ^ "Building Olli: Why "Second-degree DDM" is critical to the process | Local Motors". 2016-06-24. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  27. ^ "Local Motors unveils Olli, its new self-driving car, in National Harbor (Video)". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  28. ^ "Self-driving minibus to hit streets in Las Vegas". 2016-06-16. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  29. ^ Sebastian Stryhn Kjeldtoft (2016-07-27). "Førerløse busser skal spare tid og penge" (in Danish). Information.
  30. ^ Autonomous shuttle Olli deployed in Turin, Italy JAN 17, 2020
  31. ^ "Whitby autonomous bus in manual mode when it crashed, driver seriously injured: police".
  32. ^ "Self-driving shuttle pilot project ends without giving a single ride". 28 January 2022.
  33. ^ Ringle, Hayley (Feb 1, 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: Local Motors lays off employees, shifts gears to autonomous vehicles and white-label software". The Business Journals (Phoenix Business Journal). Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  34. ^ Bellan, Rebecca (Jan 14, 2022). "Local Motors, the startup behind the Olli autonomous shuttle, has shut down". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-01-14.

External links edit

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