They’ve built desert racers, motorcycles, drift trikes, cruisers and the world’s first 3D printed car, but one thing on their collaborative, open-source product development list of vehicle innovation isn’t a vehicle at all. It seems their sight are set toward the sky. The company just revealed that newly formed Airbus Ventures has made a ‘significant…
Having been a heavy user of industrial-grade 3D printing since 2008, Jay Leno had since added an industrial 3D scanner and even a Dimension metal 3D printer from Stratasys to his personal collection for restoring cars and creating one-of-a-kind parts. Needless to say, the guy – along with his expert team – knows a thing…
Since unveiling the Strati, their crowdsource-designed 3D printed car, Local Motors has been visiting everybody from MakerFaires to the Today Show and has been open about putting the car, which can be printed in 44 hours, into production later this year. While most would probably expect the Phoenix, Arizona-based company to unveil something on an…
Having worked out considerably well for Local Motors, the crowdsourced design business model is certainly something on the radar of companies in other industries. The approach not only stirs up new ideas for a manufacturer, but also allows inspired users to fix whatever shortcomings they might see with an existing user experience…not a bad trade.…
Earlier this week, SolidSmack reported on Local Motors’ latest project, the Strati. Having began with a crowdsourced design competition, the Strati is a single-print 3D printed electric car that is pushing Local Motors into a new territory as an on-demand automobile manufacturer. Presented as a part of the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2014 in Chicago,…
Whether or not 3D printing an actual car makes absolute sense, somebody had to be the first do it properly. Naturally, that would be Local Motors, the crowdsourced automotive design hub and makers of the Rally Fighter. The company made history this past weekend when they introduced their hyped ‘Strati 3D printed car’ concept that,…
Been tinkering with some science fiction-inspired car designs in your spare time? Local Motors has just announced their 3D Printed Car Design Challenge with $10,000 in prize money if you think you might have the next great 3D printed car idea. Also known as the Direct Digital Manufactured Vehicle (DDMV), the challenge aims to eliminate…
File this under your ‘good uses for 3D printing’ stack. The Local Motors Lab Team has been actively using the MakerBot Replicator 2 3D Printer to print prototypes, scale-down versions of parts, and smaller replicated pieces. Lo and behold, one of these sample parts actually found it’s way onto the Rally Fighter as a final…
Everyone loves a snazzy lookin’ car handle on a snazzy lookin’ car, right? Me, I prefer to command my car (or trained monkey) to open the door so I don’t have to put down my pipe and whiskey (it’s just apple juice, officer.) If you do, however, prefer to pull, push or yank on a…
It’s summer and what else is there to do but hit the road, eat Corn Nuts and jam to “Free Ride” by CCR on repeat? Dave Seliger, a contributor at Core77, recently went on an extended road trip. But this was no ordinary excursion. In an exposé named Route 77, Dave travels around America to…
Do you have a soft spot for hardcore hacks, fanatical fabrication, robots, steampunk and funnel cakes? Do we even need to ask? It’s exactly why we were at this year’s Bay Area 2012 Maker Faire featuring all of that and a mass of 3D printers, tons of guest speakers, Tesla coils set to music and…
Hubless motorcycles, people. Some designs are awesome. Others are so badass, they make your skin tighten around your face and leather chaps instantly appear on your leg meats. The Indian Gorilla V4 is no exception and is one of the coolest examples of two-wheeled engineering design and vehicular magnificence you’ll find. It also happens to…
This morning, the Local Motors website got a little bit of an update. As speculated yesterday, the automotive-centric design community is getting some software lovin’ from Siemens PLM in the form of a new software release. Solid Edge Design1. This new iteration of Solid Edge is a scaled down version of the full-blown synchronous modeling…
It’s time to stop taking that van off-road. At least, that’s what my friends keep telling me. The kids like it, I say. But they yell, and tell me, it’s embarrassing. FINE. How about I drive up on their smug attitudes in a Local Motors rock-crushin’, path-rompin’ Rally Fighter? How’s that kiddos? It could happen,…
