October 19, 2007 – Local Motors secures $2 million in crowd sourced funds for open source car

On this day in 2007 Local Motors, an American automotive design and manufacturing firm based in Phoenix, Arizona, secured $2 million from crowdfunding sources for their first project, a high-tech road and race ready rally care deemed the Rally Fighter. This operation builds only open sourced vehicles in low production numbers in microfactories that are claimed to be highly efficient and environmentally friendly. The first vehicle from Local Motors, the Rally Fighter, is manufactured and designed under a CC-BY-NC-SA license in 2007. This is a creative commons license, which means that the developers are giving others the option to use and build upon the vehicle without copyright infringement being threatened. The exact nature of the license and its restrictions can vary. You can purchase a Rally Fighter for just under $100,000 USD, and take part in the build process. This vehicle was showcased on Top Gear and had a role in Transformers 4. Local Motors is in the process of developing an open source, crowd funded 3D printed, ready for the road vehicle that meets federal standards regarding emissions and safety. They debuted their first 3D printed vehicle, the LM3D Swim, in 2015.
Pictured is a Rally Fighter By https://www.flickr.com/photos/markus941/ – https://www.flickr.com/photos/markus941/4551690892/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16043120