4 ms·

There's an obsession to own your own factory - which certainly is sexy, but this plan is pretty naive to anyone in manufacturing. If you want to prototype somet

There's an obsession to own your own factory - which certainly is sexy, but this plan is pretty naive to anyone in manufacturing. If you want to prototype something - there are hackerspaces* and even TechShop - the later investing $8M and they definitely couldn't make all the systems for a car. You can't ignore poor process fit - I.e. have fun using a MIG machine to weld your car together from sheet metal cheaper than GM can stamp it out. And you can't ignore raw materials - have fun casting your engine block from metal cans without any alloying tools / testing. In reality, local production of many things (cars) won't work with today's tools, and a real mix of general purpose local shops and standardized / accessible large ones is the real "Industry 2.0" path. * http://hackerspaces.org http://hackerspaces.org Disclosure: I run CloudFab, a cloud-based manufacturing company.

tomjen3 16y ago
>In reality, local production of many things (cars) won't work with today's tools, and a real mix of general purpose local shops and standardized / accessible large ones is the real "Industry 2.0" path. Assuming I won/t the same car GM is stamping out, they can beat me. But what I want is a flying car and an 10.1 inch Android tablet, both of which are things nobody currently produces. And tools only improve, so at some point we can defeat the empty leftovers of the industrialized age.
- nickpinkston 16y ago
  I'm not arguing against building unique things industry doesn't / won't make. I'm saying that it's more realistic to better coordinate existing production than try to invent some small scale / limited way of doing so. Have fun making a capacitive screen with that equipment list... ;-)
- bigiain 16y ago
  +1. I don't want to be able to make my own '83 Pinto, or to have the success or failure of my general purpose manufacturing tools to be judged on whether it's capable of producing an identical copy of an Aston Martin DB9. I wonder how far away from being able to produce all the custom components needed to build a vehicle that'd run me round my neighbourhood in reasonable safety running off biodeisel with reasonable efficiency?
  - tomjen3 16y ago
    You don't need special tooling for that, just a diesel car. But you should be aware that biodiesel is a scam, since it takes more gasoline to create it than it saves your car.

tomjen3 16y ago

>In reality, local production of many things (cars) won't work with today's tools, and a real mix of general purpose local shops and standardized / accessible large ones is the real "Industry 2.0" path. Assuming I won/t the same car GM is stamping out, they can beat me. But what I want is a flying car and an 10.1 inch Android tablet, both of which are things nobody currently produces. And tools only improve, so at some point we can defeat the empty leftovers of the industrialized age.

nickpinkston 16y ago
I'm not arguing against building unique things industry doesn't / won't make. I'm saying that it's more realistic to better coordinate existing production than try to invent some small scale / limited way of doing so. Have fun making a capacitive screen with that equipment list... ;-)
bigiain 16y ago
+1. I don't want to be able to make my own '83 Pinto, or to have the success or failure of my general purpose manufacturing tools to be judged on whether it's capable of producing an identical copy of an Aston Martin DB9. I wonder how far away from being able to produce all the custom components needed to build a vehicle that'd run me round my neighbourhood in reasonable safety running off biodeisel with reasonable efficiency?
- tomjen3 16y ago
  You don't need special tooling for that, just a diesel car. But you should be aware that biodiesel is a scam, since it takes more gasoline to create it than it saves your car.