4 ms·

Startup Tackles Rural Transportation Problem in Africa

24 points by dskhatri 16y ago

brianbreslin 16y ago
clever concept. there are some typos on their site, like break instead of BRAKE but neat idea. does it mention intended price?
- skushch 16y ago
  They list $6k as the goal vehicle price point. http://mobiusmotors.com/prototype/process.html http://mobiusmotors.com/prototype/process.html
alex_h 16y ago
This is a great problem to try and solve, but I can't help but think that there are already vehicles out there which more-or-less fit the bill. The humble Toyota pickup, for example, has already been put to many uses on this continent. eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War
- benologist 16y ago
  Pickup trucks, chicken buses etc don't solve the problem of safety though ... developing countries have awful road fatality rates and a death in the family / loss of vehicle just adds to the problem. Safe, modern vehicles cost so much relatively they're a similar financial commitment to a 20 year mortgage.
  - joe_the_user 16y ago
    I read an article ten years ago claiming that the American school bus was the single safest form of transportation in the US, carrying millions of children with a fatality rate of less than 1 per year. School buses might not have safety belts but the combination of machinery and procedures they do use apparently works very well. School bus driving is very regulated. Cars and other personal vehicles have generally had a poor safety record. Traffic accidents are still a leading cause of death in the US, though they have gone down. What is the fundamental reason for this? A personal vehicle has the problem of a random person rather than a professional driver driving it. This leaves one open to drunk, unqualified, distracted, angry, suicidal or whatever drivers (of course, you can that problem with a professional but it's quite likely to be less so). Getting more personal vehicles into an area that is relatively more lawless would only magnify their problems. Thus more personal vehicles would not increase the safety of third world roads. Instead, increasing bus driver training, improving roads and similar less sexy measures seem in order.
- StrawberryFrog 16y ago
  Top Gear concurs: http://www.streetfire.net/video/top-gear-tries-to-destroy-the-toyota-hilux_105017.htm http://www.streetfire.net/video/top-gear-tries-to-destroy-th...
joe_the_user 16y ago
The cost of buying the things would matter less than the cost of running the things. This looks like a 4-8 person SUV, which would be inherently more expensive to run regardless of the costs. I would imagine that the kind of vehicle most useful for an impoverished area would be a bus (as in, the kind of vehicle most third world people travel in already). Toyota and Mercedes already manufacture small, rugged buses that seem to make it to the third world market. Further, it's hard to beat the price of a used American school bus - $2000-$5000 for a thirty-person vehicle. American school districts discard a lot of buses after a few years use due to safety regulations. Oddly enough, this vehicle class already emphasizes safety and economy. That's why you see them in Central America frequently, along with the Toyota and Mercedes mini-buses. Also, large manufacturers already have large parts networks through-out the world. It seems unlikely a start-up could duplicate that.
- dskhatri 16y ago
  'The cost of buying the things' matters quite significantly in developing countries as is evidenced by Tata's high-profile release of the $2200 Nano (http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/ http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/) in India. As discussed on the site (http://mobiusmotors.com/demand/alternatives.html http://mobiusmotors.com/demand/alternatives.html), high-capacity public transport vehicles already exist in rural Africa. Making the American school buses rugged enough for the typical rural African roads and longer travel distances would certainly increase their cost. Mobius Motors is targeting a market segment similar to that of the Tata Nano. I posted this article to highlight the growing entrepreneurial confidence in Africa (Kenya in this case).
  - joe_the_user 16y ago
    Hmm, I'm not an expert on African roads. I know that American School buses do quite well on the rough, mountainous terrain of Central and South America. They are tough, simple vehicles and ride fairly high off the ground. Also, consumers in China, India or where-ever undoubtedly want cars. Despite this, I think it is unfortunate for automobile-centric development to progress. In the US, the private automobile has had terrible environmental track record, a terrible safety record and has enabled a geography of social isolation (suburbia and sprawl). As the most energy-intensive form of transportation, the private automobile seems, at the very least, to have pushed world energy production capacities to the brink. Reproducing this trend around the world seems undesirable.
khandelwal 16y ago
When I lived in Tanzania, Land Rover Defender (90s and 110s) were the most popular and seemed to be built for the road conditions. It's an established platform.

24 points by dskhatri 16y ago

clever concept. there are some typos on their site, like break instead of BRAKE but neat idea. does it mention intended price?

skushch 16y ago
They list $6k as the goal vehicle price point. http://mobiusmotors.com/prototype/process.html http://mobiusmotors.com/prototype/process.html

alex_h 16y ago

This is a great problem to try and solve, but I can't help but think that there are already vehicles out there which more-or-less fit the bill. The humble Toyota pickup, for example, has already been put to many uses on this continent. eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War

benologist 16y ago
Pickup trucks, chicken buses etc don't solve the problem of safety though ... developing countries have awful road fatality rates and a death in the family / loss of vehicle just adds to the problem. Safe, modern vehicles cost so much relatively they're a similar financial commitment to a 20 year mortgage.
- joe_the_user 16y ago
  I read an article ten years ago claiming that the American school bus was the single safest form of transportation in the US, carrying millions of children with a fatality rate of less than 1 per year. School buses might not have safety belts but the combination of machinery and procedures they do use apparently works very well. School bus driving is very regulated. Cars and other personal vehicles have generally had a poor safety record. Traffic accidents are still a leading cause of death in the US, though they have gone down. What is the fundamental reason for this? A personal vehicle has the problem of a random person rather than a professional driver driving it. This leaves one open to drunk, unqualified, distracted, angry, suicidal or whatever drivers (of course, you can that problem with a professional but it's quite likely to be less so). Getting more personal vehicles into an area that is relatively more lawless would only magnify their problems. Thus more personal vehicles would not increase the safety of third world roads. Instead, increasing bus driver training, improving roads and similar less sexy measures seem in order.
StrawberryFrog 16y ago
Top Gear concurs: http://www.streetfire.net/video/top-gear-tries-to-destroy-the-toyota-hilux_105017.htm http://www.streetfire.net/video/top-gear-tries-to-destroy-th...

joe_the_user 16y ago

The cost of buying the things would matter less than the cost of running the things. This looks like a 4-8 person SUV, which would be inherently more expensive to run regardless of the costs. I would imagine that the kind of vehicle most useful for an impoverished area would be a bus (as in, the kind of vehicle most third world people travel in already). Toyota and Mercedes already manufacture small, rugged buses that seem to make it to the third world market. Further, it's hard to beat the price of a used American school bus - $2000-$5000 for a thirty-person vehicle. American school districts discard a lot of buses after a few years use due to safety regulations. Oddly enough, this vehicle class already emphasizes safety and economy. That's why you see them in Central America frequently, along with the Toyota and Mercedes mini-buses. Also, large manufacturers already have large parts networks through-out the world. It seems unlikely a start-up could duplicate that.

dskhatri 16y ago
'The cost of buying the things' matters quite significantly in developing countries as is evidenced by Tata's high-profile release of the $2200 Nano (http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/ http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/) in India. As discussed on the site (http://mobiusmotors.com/demand/alternatives.html http://mobiusmotors.com/demand/alternatives.html), high-capacity public transport vehicles already exist in rural Africa. Making the American school buses rugged enough for the typical rural African roads and longer travel distances would certainly increase their cost. Mobius Motors is targeting a market segment similar to that of the Tata Nano. I posted this article to highlight the growing entrepreneurial confidence in Africa (Kenya in this case).
- joe_the_user 16y ago
  Hmm, I'm not an expert on African roads. I know that American School buses do quite well on the rough, mountainous terrain of Central and South America. They are tough, simple vehicles and ride fairly high off the ground. Also, consumers in China, India or where-ever undoubtedly want cars. Despite this, I think it is unfortunate for automobile-centric development to progress. In the US, the private automobile has had terrible environmental track record, a terrible safety record and has enabled a geography of social isolation (suburbia and sprawl). As the most energy-intensive form of transportation, the private automobile seems, at the very least, to have pushed world energy production capacities to the brink. Reproducing this trend around the world seems undesirable.

khandelwal 16y ago

When I lived in Tanzania, Land Rover Defender (90s and 110s) were the most popular and seemed to be built for the road conditions. It's an established platform.