Went back to MIT to see the four vehicles built this summer by the
Vehicle Design Summit, a self-organized group of students from around the world.
There were many tired students and rolling prototypes of four vehicles: hydrogen fuel cell, electric, biofuel, and solar assisted human power.
Each needed finishing touches but they were essentially done. Pretty good for an ad hoc student project with a construction schedule of about two months and a modest budget.
The best thing is that everything is open source. This was not a design competition but a construction jam by young engineers who are already building world class competition human power and solar vehicles.
The networking alone among these folks is probably going to be of incalculable value.
Previous diary on same subject:
Open Source Redesign of Transportation Systems
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