The project may have a really goofy name — C,mm,n (pronounced like the word “common”) — but that doesn’t stop it from being a great idea for all those armchair automobile designers out there.
Taking its cue from the open-source software community, which produces public-domain products free of royalty fees, the open-source car project wants to use cooperation of many people to put a million zero-emission cars on the roads by 2020. According to the group’s website, “c,mm,n is a total mobility concept for the future. Our c,mm,nity is open to anyone with a creative, intelligent and enterprising perspective on mobility issues, and who wants to help create a better world.” They claim that more than 800 people have been involved in its latest designs, with a core of 80 volunteers doing the bulk of the work.
The project was started by the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment, which asked several technical universities in the Netherlands to design a sustainable car for the future. Four years later, a model of the group’s first design was exhibited recently at Amsterdam’s annual car show.
For those who want a closer look at the innards of the car, an online “webplatform” is available for download with all the specifications of the design. The technically minded can get a good look at what makes the thing run and get involved.
“I am extremely pleased to see your goal of one million electric cars in 2020,” said Dutch Prime Minister Blakenende at the city’s car show. “I am entirely convinced that this is the direction we need to be moving in.”
The open-source car is part of a larger effort of the city of Amsterdam to make itself the cleanest city in Europe by 2040, which will require the coordination of all transportation, including private cars, to work together and allow the city to function with the least waste and pollution.
The c,mm,n might not be an idea that would get a lot of traction in the United States today, but that won’t stop some of us from wanting to be part of a grand mission to make better cars and cleaner communities.
Photo courtesy of c.mm.n.org.