Should We Be Open-Sourcing Detroit

Filed under: Car Tech

Soon-to-be president Barack Obama was on ‘Meet the Press’ Sunday, and made the point that any bailout of the US auto industry would include specific stipulations about what sort of automobiles they would produce.

That’s cool and all, but Earth2Tech’s Kevin Kelleher has tackled the subject of taking things a bit further, namely the notion of a “‘Manhattan Project’ for Detroit” of open source, cross-company research and development. The idea was first brought up by Chad Holliday, CEO of DuPont, who asked for:

“[A] new-generation automobile as very safe and environmentally sensitive, perhaps using solar cells. The $5-billion project would be paid for through the public sale of bonds and would be operated on a tight timeline. It would involve the best scientists and engineers from the Detroit auto companies as well as Microsoft, Intel, Google, Boeing and DuPont.”

The idea was later brought to Washington by Representative Ron Klein, who suggested a shared “knowledge base and innovations, among all automakers” — the open-source twist,” if you will.

Call it the “Detroit Project,” call it the “Motor City Project,” call it “Save the Whales.” Whatever. Just call it. [From: BoingBoing]

Should We Be Open-Sourcing Detroit originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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