

Oscar = Open Source Car - puente
http://www.theoscarproject.org/

======
acangiano
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.

~~~
dman
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
It usually means: "I don't like it".

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

~~~
puente
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
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 :)

------
superuser2
You wouldn't download a car?

------
Devilboy
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
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>

It doesn't sound easy, but it doesn't sound difficult compared to actually
building the thing.

~~~
lsc
did I really just say "there's president"? jesus.

