Not a computer, but a car: One Car Per Family
“One Car Per Family” Yves Béhar of FuseProject announced his new product last month at the Greener Gadgets conference in New York, a cute, green car aimed for developing nation civiliatns.
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Inspired by what he learned as the industrial designer on the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, Béhar presented a similarly conceived bare-bones automobile concept whose flexible design encourages do-it-yourself modification. Intended for dirt roads and in areas of undependable or no power infrastructure, the car is projected to have electrically driven wheels, but to accept various power plants. These might include batteries and charger, a small internal combustion engine, a hybrid system or even — in a scientifically over-optimistic suggestion — solar panels.
Just as the OLPC computer is customizable to encourage children to expand its utility, Béhar says, he made the car “hackable” so it could be powered and configured in any number of ways and even serve as a de facto portable generator. The front and rear forms are symmetrical, for easier and cheaper fabrication.
Intended as a set of ideas — a schematic and not a literal blueprint — Béhar’s “people’s car” was inspired by the Citroën 2CV (“Deux Chevaux”), the legendary French peasant car conceived for farmers to carry crops to market over dirt roads… Béhar has continued this modularity with sketches of his little car transformed into a taxi, truck and ambulance.”
