Michael, thanks for the props and honest critique. I didn’t see this thread until today when it popped up in my Google alerts - a late response is better than never, I suppose!
You’ve a great community for open design discussion here. Since you all know we’re really building cars, and we’re really doing it in an open co-creative way, I hope you’ll join us for the next vehicle dev. The choice of next LM vehicle has not yet been made, but we expect each outcome to be better than the last. This co-creative process is new, and while we are very proud of the Rally Fighter and the (typically) head-turning high-fiving response we get from folks, we know this is our first shot out of the barrel.
Since you care enough to critique, do it early and post on local-motors.com so we can make the cars even better. It’s strange to think the Rally Fighter would have turned out differently if you all had joined the development process.
Design Detroit, good thoughts here. Sangho is a uniquely talented individual with some solid experience under his belt. He is not the soul designer, though he is the original designer of the Rally Fighter. Like any studio we work in a team. While Sangho’s creative inspiration and design rooted this concept he worked with a large community along with a small group of super talented engineers. We never set out to design a car that everyone would want to buy - quite the opposite. We set out to design and build a car for a specific group of people, many of which joined us for the development. Much of the design was lead by engineering considerations.
Cyberdemon, the word crowdsource has earned a bad reputation. We opt for the word “co-create” as it’s more true to what we’re doing - designing and building something together. We do not design by committee, but with a bi-modal intelligence from community and company. Community keeps us on the track of their desires with honest critique and guidance. Company is responsible for safety, cost, and accessibility. Together, we’re co-creating a new type of car company. Sangho earned $20,000 -Raphael Laurent who designed the side vent, Mihai Panaitescu who designed the interior, and Filip Tejszerski who designed the RF Lightbar also earned cash. Nobody participated for the money - though the idea of having a car on the road with their names on it, that was incentive.
Michael, note we’re not trying to re-invent kit cars. We’re setting a course to improve the way cars are designed and brought to market. This open collaborative process is the best way for us to deliver cars our customers really want. We’ll continue to improve the process and the cars, and hope you’ll join us for future rounds.
Cheers all - happy to answer any questions.
Ariel
p.s. michael - you’re in New England, and you didn’t come by to see the Rally Fighter?