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Should We Be Open-Sourcing Detroit?
Soon-to-be president Barack Obama was on 'Meet the Press' Sunday, and made the point that any bailout of the US auto industry would include specific requirements about what sort of vehicles they would produce.
That's cool and all, but Earth2Tech's Kevin Kelleher has tackled the subject of taking things a bit further, namely the notion of a "'Manhattan Project' for Detroit" of open source, cross-company research and development. The idea was first brought up by Chad Holliday, CEO of DuPont, who asked for:
"[A] new-generation car as very safe and environmentally sensitive, perhaps using solar cells. The $5-billion project would be paid for through the public sale of bonds and would be operated on a tight timeline. It would involve the best scientists and engineers from the Detroit auto companies as well as Microsoft, Intel, Google, Boeing and DuPont."
The idea was later brought to Washington by Representative Ron Klein, who suggested a shared "knowledge base and innovations, among all automakers" -- the open-source twist," if you will.
Call it the "Detroit Project," call it the "Motor City Project," call it "Save the Whales." Whatever. Just call it. [From: BoingBoing]
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Comments
1
Subscribe to commentsLarry LubellDec 10th 2008 5:10PM
Clearly the "Big 3" need to rethink the kinds of cars they are offering to the American market. But I also understand they were selling Massive SUVs because the public wanted them. People were buying and they were profitable. We are critical of Detroit for not making the cars people are looking for while at the same time finding fault with them for selling SUVs when they were in demand.
KEN THOMAS wrote about U.S. automakers drawing fresh skepticism from lawmakers Thursday, over their pleas for an expanded $34 billion rescue package they say they need to survive.. Congressional analysts said one bailout plan under consideration would fall short of what the car-makers want.
I know opposition to the bailout is strong by many in congress, But the truth is we have no choice !
Yes it will cost us a lot of money to bail out Detroit's Big Three auto makers, but less than it will cost not to, and loose those jobs.
If those 1,000,000 jobs disappear, the tax payers end up with a $10 Billion bill for Unemployment insurance. The US government gets stuck with paying all of the pensions- and another $20 Billion.Then you have the loss of income tax, state taxes, sales tax, I did not do that math but at would clearly again come in at billions of dollars.
America will end up with maybe 2,000,000 more people without medical insurance, the government will again have to step in and pick-up those costs. Just because a family finds it's self with out insurance, does not mean they will not end up in a hospital receiving expensive medical care. Unable to pay for insurance or the resulting bills, the states and the federal government will need to address those bills; shot of that help; hospitals all across Michigan, Indiana and Illinois will be forced to close.
Not only does the auto industry directly and indirectly account for more than 2,000,000 US. jobs, but those jobs are disproportionately concentrated in Midwestern states. Detroit's economy, already in deep recession, will find it's self in a "Death spiral". Illinois and Indiana each have close ties to the auto industry and will see greatly increased unemployment. While home values have taken a hit coast to coast, concentrated job loss will result in drastic drops in home prices in those areas. How many banks will fail because ex GM workers will not be able to pay their mortgages? Does Congress turn down the big three, only to then bail out the banks that got stuck with the mortgages that the auto workers could no longer pay.
GM is not too big to fail - it is just too big for it to be in our interest to let it fail.
www.urbaninsuranceagency.com