Mygreenwheels

My favourite feature of a motor show is always the concept cars and here's one from the Geneva Motor Show that uses organic LED lighting to completely change its personality from a nondescript bubble car into a ... Well, I'm not actually sure just what it changes into, but it's certainly worth a closer look.

For a start the 'Light Car - Open Source' from the EDAG Group is the first automotive engineering use of basalt fibre which is lighter and cheaper than carbon fibre or aluminium and is about to be widely used in the construction of rotors for wind plants. It's also 100% recyclable and this EV features in-wheel motors (which means more power, more space, more efficiency), so some important EV boxes ticked in my view. It also seats up to five and has a range of 150km.

But you're wondering about the OLED bit, aren't you?? Well, it's used as a 'variable design and communication element'. When the car is started up its glassy-looking body comes to life - in the glass panes OLED lamps mark the outlines of the rear and headlights and (I love this bit) the driver can modify the outlines to give the car a unique appearance. You can also arrange your 'workplace' in the cockpit. It's like the stuff you do with your PC or mobile phone, so why not your car.

This bit I'm not sure about. The transparent tailgate is used as a projection screen, for example, to communicate your braking force to the driver behind by means of an illuminated scale or you can display info about the tail end of a traffic jam ahead. I wonder if this feature allows driver modifications? Most inter-vehicle communications tend to be of the road-rage variety in my experience so I'm not sure this would help any more than good old brake and hazard lights.

The Open Source bit is interesting in the context of auto manufacturing. As EDAG points out, many of the technologies featured in this car are still in the early stages of their development, so the company regards this as an open source project and actively approaches other companies to work with it on development of the EDAG Light Car. It has made a deliberate decision to address itself to a wide circle, including computer and software developers, in order to enable new notions to be absorbed in the 'car of the future'. The idea is to stimulate discussions of ways and means of satisfying future consumer demands - both ecological and economical - on the next generation of cars.

When you see what wonderful innovations come about in the IT world through open source developments - a good example is WikiPedia - and how quickly they happen, it's tempting to think that this approach could turn automotive development on its head. How exciting! I can't wait to see where EDAG's project goes from here.