Local Motors XC2V Competition

Local Motors, producer of the Rally Fighter, has teamed up with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to host a design contest. The partnership, which was made possible within the Adaptive Vehicle Makes initiative, aims to create an Experimental Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle (XC2V), exploring the potential of a crowd-sourced design for military use.

The initiative to develop a crowd-derived vehicle body design for the US military was created in an effort to decrease the time and developmental costs associated with creating niche military vehicles. The existing system of awarding contracts is seen by many as a process that "takes too long and costs too much", DARPA Service Chief Jason Byrd told car Design News.

"Cheaper vehicles made in a more efficient manner means we can build a vehicle for a specific purpose and make fewer of them," Byrd explained. "Later, if the operating environment has changed, we can simply make another vehicle."

Submissions for the XC2V design contest must be in by 3 March 2011, and the contest officially ends on March 10. The parameters for the vehicles are all available on the contest website, where you can also find a series of contextual field scenarios to give a better understanding of the roles entries would need to fill. Entrants are able to submit a design for one or both of two specified categories: the role of Battlefield Quick Evac and Resupply or the Fast Recon/Light Defense.

The XC2V contest initiated by DARPA and hosted through Local Motors promises potential for real change. Local Motors is a noted micro-manufacturer with a proven record of turning paper to production in very short time with very small budgets, and the Rally Fighter illustrates the benefits of crowd-sourced design. Developed following a contest within the design community, the vehicle was not only created very quickly, but the research and development phase is continuous – the car can be optimized for every new environment in which it is introduced.

This type of continuous R&D is convenient for individual owners who wish to cutomize their vehicles to their own tastes but it is potentially life saving in the field. Niche vehicles within the military's service could be quickly adapted to ever changing threats in small production shops within the field of operations. When new needs arise, the existing range can be recycled into another ground up concept.

While this contest is merely proof of concept, the winning design will in fact make it to the prototyping phase and the lucky winner will get cash prize of $7,500. The winning designer will also be able to play a part in the prototype's development, at the instruction of Local Motors.

The value in the XC2V contest is not in the potential monetary gain or notoriety, but rather in the proof of concept to the world (and DARPA) that the design community can do much better than the existing system with the help of invaluable micro-producers like Local Motors.

Related Website:
Local Motors/DARPA Contest Page

By Peter Lachance