WIKISPEED Team Blog

TDD for Hardware

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:36:41 GMT

An email came in recently discussing TDD (Test Driven Development) for Hardware development, and requested an exmple. I wrote this back, and have made it available here, too:

"One example of TDD from our project was the emissions system. We started with a user story; in our case a post-it note on the wall; which said "As a user I can drive a car emitting less than 100g of CO2 per 100km driven."

We then bought an emissions test machine, and then started developing and iterating emissions systems in order to pass the test provided by the emissions test machine. In this way, we started with a test (100g of CO2 per 100km driven) and that test was failing as we didn't have a car at all at that point. Then we acquired a test fixture to let us quickly an inexpensively (time and money, but most importantly for us low-frustration) check if the test was passing.

All of our work is phrased in tests, things like "as a user I can drive 100 miles at 100 mpg", and that card isn't "done" until a user actually climbed into the car and drove the car 100 miles at 100 mpg."

WIKISPEED QnA with LE TEMPS

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:22:11 GMT

Here are excerpts from a Question and Answer session between Joe Justice, Team Lead of Team WIKISPEED, and the French newspaper LE TEMPS:

- Why do you think that crowdsourcing is now the solution for the future mobility solutions ? Could you tell me in a few words your vision of tomorrow automobile?

A more participatory model, where future users don't simply pick from a list of options but collaborate in the design and value statements they wish their transportation to provide. Modularity makes this more possible than it has been, as does the affordability of 3d printing and it's partner technology- subtractive rapid prototyping. I see groups like WIKISPEED making the road legality, safety, and compliance side of the solution a simple service, so that clubs and groups and individuals can design transportation using those modules as the base.

- In your opinion, the classical automobile industry is not able any more to invent cars for tomorrow (and today)? Why ?

The classical automotive industry is amazing and capable. However it is a closed system in most cases- a student or a house-wife isn't able to make changes to that process or its products. And it takes a fair amount of time, multiple years, for even those inside the industry to realize their dreams. If the speed of change can increase, and if the industry can be same-day responsive to customer's wishes, then we'll see cars catch up with smart phones. And this is happening now, WIKISPEED produces new models every 7 days, and there is no reason a better funded company couldn't accomplish single day iterations.

- Can you explain in a few word the idea and the concept of Wikispeed ?

Wikispeed is a volunteer based, green automotive-prototyping company, with a goal to change the world for the better.

We’re a collaborative team of skilled individuals who volunteer time to creating safe, low-cost, ultra-efficient, road-legal vehicles.

We’re passionately committed to rapidly solving problems for social good. With goals such as reducing the pollution and the stress on global resources, generated by traditional gas powered automobiles.

All money earned by, or donated to, Wikispeed is invested back into the company to assure movement forward with WIKISPEEDs vision.

- Anticipating upstream the wishes of potential customers through the Internet so as to provide small production structures flexible and reactive, rather than asking monsters existing industry to adapt to changes and trends: this way of describing the philosophy of Wikispeedis correct?

That sounds right, and we enable this by prototyping Micro-Factories- small factories packaged inside shipping containers that we are able to send to the area where production is needed and use local materials and local skill to produce our products. These are then able to be load-balanced, shipped or trucked to the area they are most needed next, enabling manufacturing agility.

- How is concretly built the SGT01 prototype ? All the parts of the car are coming from the auto industry ?

The SGT01 (Super Grand Touring 01) is built from 8 modules. Each module is improved each week. Our most efficient engine module uses a Honda sourced 4 cylinder, 1.8l gasoline engine. We have another version in development with an engine of our own design. Many versions of many modules "wrap" vended components from existing automotive suppliers, and some versions of some modules are completely team WIKISPEED's design which we have published in Open Source for crowd contribution.

- Do you plan to have all the parts eventually created by the community? At the moment are there more designers than engineers in the community?

We aim for a completely open source car with all parts in the Creative Commons. I also hope that the design will always inter-operate well with vended components from current automotive suppliers, to enable all the folks working hard now in closed-source companies as well as all the passionate deep thinkers in the collaborative economy, and let them continue to learn from each other and work even more closely together.

- Where the cars will be built ? Micro factories ?

Our cars are currently built in brick-and-mortar shops around the world. Only 5 things are required for someone to set up their own WIKISPEED shop:

1) 24x7x365 access to anyone who has signed a Team Member form. Let's not block people who want to solve problems.

2) a clearly labeled "Safety Shelf" with all responsible safety gear for the tasks happening in that shop.

3) a clearly labelled "Snack Shelf"- just as important as the safety shelf! Donations keep shops stocked with beer and healthy snacks.

4) all tools out and visible. We typically use clear plastic bins to group tools, and label them. No drawers or cabinets unless they are clear.

5) A Kanban board (backlog board) of tests, so that folks know what to do next and how to know when they are done.

All that said, the next step is micro-factories, which we are prototyping now inside our shops.

- How many cars have been ordered?

We have sold 5 cars and have build hundreds of prototypes, module by module. Our short term goal is to sell 10 prototypes in order to organically fund and refactor our mass-production intent ultra-efficient, comfortable commuter car.

- The activities of Wikispeed are concerning a few market at the moment. Do you think they could fit in the future a wider market? Andthat the industry could adapt to this vision of the car?

We first focus on enthusiasts, as they are willing to help us evolve something new will give us the most passionate feedback to make our cars much better. We then aim to create products that 20% of the world's automotive commuters will seriously consider driving in on the way to work. We then aim to meet taxi, postal service, fleet, construction, freight, and similar more specialized needs. That said, almost 80M new cars and trucks were built and sold last year globally, and WIKISPEED's goal isn't aiming to volumes in that range. Instead, we'd like to help existing suppliers and manufacturers develop more relevant products using agile practices like Extreme Manufacturing, which WIKISPEED uses.

- Do you know if this industry in the US is thinking about crowdsourcing ? (like Fiat in Brasil for instance, BMW, Opel, or VW in Europe) ?

Yes, many of them are working to resolve how to protect their intellectual property while collaborating with the public on product design. I've had the pleasure of working with two large manufacturing companies and one electronics design firm to resolve this, and I hope many more are able to follow those examples and engage their customers alongside the interested public during product conception and design.

- What are the reactions of the historical auto industry in the US ?

Luckily, it has been overwhelmingly positive to date. I believe this stems from many companies wanting to work in a more agile way, reduce lead times and costs while having happier staff and happier customers. An example like team WIKISPEED seems to be useful to them as they undergo their own agile transformations I hope we have a very different automotive industry, world-wide, in just 10 years. And I hope some of them make the change in the next 2 years- and whomever that is may very well be not the new "big 3" but the next "big 1". This may become very exciting!

Rapid Prototyping Circuit Boards

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 07:43:39 GMT

We use a homebuild system that we bought complete for $2,700 USD. The plans to build that are free online here: http://buildyourcnc.com/ With this unit and etchable PCB's, you can Subtractively Rapid Print your circuit boards in house, and it goes really fast too- no more 3 week to 3 month turn-around times for rapid prototyping! And the best part, in volume you can simply add another N SRP machines side by side to get the velocity required to keep up with your line flow, and rely on your partners for even more value add work like helping design the next version and improve the current version.

I haven't used these company's machines, but they appear to offer a vended commercial product similar to the homebuilt unit we use:

http://t-techtools.com/store/

http://www.mitspcb.com/edoc/epri.htm

http://www.lpkf.com/products/rapid-pcb-prototyping/index.htm

We have used this service for rapid PCB prototyping through the mail, our team in France relies on them for many projects:

http://fritzing.org/

Maybe the most awesome but I have not yet tried it myself, and maybe even easier, is using a 3d printer (this one is from a company that sponsors WIKISPEED, and it looks great: http://www.alibre.com/3dprinters/cube/cubex-3d-printer.asp) and alternate a pass of standard non-conductive plastic with a pass of conductive plastic (http://www.wired.com/design/2012/11/conductive-plastic/).

The world is awesome,

Joe Justice

XM Workshop in your business- curriculum

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:50:49 GMT

More and more companies are inviting WIKISPEED to their site to build a WIKISPEED car with them, or sending managers and delivery team members to WIKISPEED and pair with our team. The common thread seems to be hands on experience delivering an Agile hardware project with XM, and in some cases launching or re-launching a team to use Agile practices. The flow for an XM workshop is customized every time to the client team we are coaching. Here is the starter backlog that we currently start with and then customize:

if off-site folks: start live stream, slots throughout the day to view the live stream.

Orientation:

Sponsors and Executive introduction to the workshop.

getting to know you, ice breaker.

presentation and opening.

XM Shop Setup. safety shelf, tool organization, kanban board.

create the backlog.

estimate the backlog (depending on if the group wants to estimate when they are done or accelerate delivery as quickly as responsible).

Teach by doing: Pairing and Swarming.

Get to work.

iteration 1 Demo and retrospective.

iteration 2 Demo and retrospective.

iteration 3 Demo and retrospective.

High Fives, presentation and closing.

XM Workshop machines and software list

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:59:42 GMT

Thinking of bringing team WIKISPEED to your business to build a car on site? Many companies are in order to give their groups hands-on experience with Agile project delivery outside of the software context, and have a great time doing it.

We were asked what size room we might need, how much time it takes, and how many people are a good fit.

15'x20' is just about the tiniest we can use. Any larger than that, up to a sports field, is awesome. It helps if the facility is out of the rain and comfortable, and it helps if it has standard household power which we can use to run a drill and good lighting. We can build a rolling-chassis in 1 day, and put a pretty carbon fiber exterior aeroshell on it in 2 days. We can do a workshop with as few as 2 people or more than 2,000. Groups of 20 work very well and are intimate, but larger is perfectly doable if we have a good wireless microphone setup on hand.

We were then asked what machines we'd want in the room or to have access to before-hand, and what software we want running on laptops or workstations or cloud instances available to the attendees:

Safety glasses, dust maks, work gloves, ear protection, and a large first-aid kit are best practice items!

Healthy snacks and water are just as important as the safety equipment.

A LARGE whiteboard, 4'x8' or even larger if we can, helps very much. As does a projector and a powered sound system, but these are not required.

Super Sticky PostIt Notes and black chisel-tip sharplie markers. One deck of PostIts and sharpie per attendee seems to be the right amount.

Vertical Milling Machine with 3/8ths drill bit and 1/4" end mill.

Horizontal bandsaw, cut-off saw, or cold saw, capable of cutting 4"x4" square tube.

hand held grinding wheel.

CNC (computer numerically controlled) milling machine. Any size.

CNC router table. Any size, but 4'x8' is THE BEST! We'll use this to cut foam, so even a light-duty machine made of wood can work.

CNC water jet cutter. These are typically big and heavy, but if we had access to it before-hand we could cut out the suspension and steering rack nearby, saving us all some shipping costs, and having a good time doing it!

3d printer. Any size. We can use this to make some plastic interior parts and mini-cars for attendees to take home.

FEA (finite element analysis): This software is used for TDD (test driven development) where we see the structural goals of a module before we design it.

CFD (computational fluid dynamics): This software is used fot TDD to see air, heat, water, or even electricity propagate over and through a shape. We use this to see the air-flow and heat dissipation goals of a module before we design it.

CAD (3d drawing software): We use Alibre Design ($149 a seat) and Google Sketchup (free) to mock up 3d shapes and parts.

CAM (Computer Aided Machining): We use this software to take a CAD file and put it in a format the CNC machines above can then create in the real world.

None of these machines or software packages are required to do an XM workshop at your location, but any one of them adds enormous value to the experience weather they available before hand to prep or even on-site in the room we'll be building a WIKISPEED car together.

You can email info@WIKISPEED.com to check dates to bring an XM workshop to your office or group.

Building Your Own WIKISPEED Car as an class project, A guide for educators

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:08:16 GMT

I've been working with Iron Range Engineering, a technical school who is partnering with WIKISPEED on aspects of their hands on, project based curriculum. Here is my email to them on what they may take on during this next semester. I hope many other educators are able to expand this email into a template for an educational curriculum for hands-on project work:

The specifics for the next semester are likely 1) building a WIKISPEED chassis. The BOM and fabrication steps for that are posted here: http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/wikispeed_SGT01

We do recommend stress-relieving the welds, maybe using a bead plaster or ball-peen hammer. Our experienced fabrication lead, Bryan Ford, makes chassis in 6 hours each. The students can choose to FEA torsional rigidity or impact tests or otherwise add fun and educational academic steps here which will add time, and that's just fine and maybe a savvy use of time.

the next step then is to create the suspension modules. The fabrication steps for that are on our YouTube Channel, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHDX_8yjaSw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D-o2PIyFxw

All 4 suspension modules can be cut and assembled in a day, but again you can take more time for learning opportunities.

Now there is a car chassis on 4 wheels- and it starts to look like a car!

Next step is the Pedal Plate, which are we updating right now. When the students complete the chassis and are starting the suspension modules, let us know and we'll post the most up-to-date information on the pedal plate.

Now the students have a stearable, braking, rolling chassis.

Next step is the interior module, the BOM and CAD of which are posted here:

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/wikispeed_SGT01

Putting seats and seat belts into that frame is the next step. We've used $60 seats from Summit Racing and $400 seats from Momo before, it depends on what you might want.

Now fabricate the crush structures. Email us for the most up-to-date CAD and fabrication steps. All 4 crush structures can be fabbed in a day, or again you can choose to conduct FEA of crash testing scenarios and hone them until they match the actual crash test videos of our car- which could be a tremendously rewarding academic activity!

Then, finally, the engine module! Again the BOM and CAD steps are here:

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/wikispeed_SGT01

Almost any engine will work. We use the Honda R18a engine to get our ultra-efficient fuel economy, but many engines will work well. A used Honda Civic engine would be an affordable choice. I'd recommend DELAYING commitment to the last responsible moment and not acquiring an engine until you have a rolling chassis that students can sit in, steer, and brake while seat belted.

Now that you have a working and operable V1 vehicle minus lighting systems and bodywork. Suspension settings and brake balance can be dialed in, for fun and academic learning. Engine tuning can commence for emissions reduction, fuel economy, and/or increased power. Exhausts can be changed for reduced noise pollution. But even more importantly from my perspective, we can now start developing new modules and enhancements together through remote pairing as we both have complete vehicles.

Next up you can begin layup of your body- using one of our CAD's or ANY body design the students would like to test the aerodynamic merits of. And you can use our lighting package or design and implement your own.

After all of this, we can, and should, arrange a WIKISPEED one-make race event, where we "compete" on fuel economy, emissions, speed, comfort, noise reduction, and convenience. This will be, I hope, more of a celebration and learning experience than a competition, but helps set the example for future meets when more groups have built their own WIKISPEED cars and we identify meaningful innovations and share them across the WIKISPEED community and the world. It will likely involve local television and some international written press, which should boost all of the student's careers.

Awesome?

-Joe

WIKISPEED to help companies during restructuring

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:32:39 GMT

WIKISPEED is part of a plan for restructuring a French aircraft company.

A representative from an insolvent French aircraft company contacted WIKSIPEED to seek help using rapid iterations and Agility as they restructure their company. Below is an edit of the conversation:

Thank you for writing, your story is both interesting and emotionally touching. Any time we see a depressed economic area with a business under financial duress, our very human response of wanting to help can well up to encourage us and build hope and careers for the people there.

Q: What is the business model used to launch and financially support the WIKISPEED project?

A) We worked in short iterations, funding only the MUST-HAVE work in that iteration, and nothing else, to produce working product. We then used the public demonstration of each of those product iterations to fund the next iteration. This would be like funding your aviation business for 1 week, saying, "On Friday, we will have 2 customers and the press here. We will show them what we created this week and what tests it passes, and what tests it has yet to pass, and see if they are interested in advanced orders. If not, we are out of money. If they do, we will be able to fund the team for another week." In this way the X Prize was like our first release, with that car built in 3 months.

Q: Is there any show stopper and what would you recommend for success in a highly complex and regulated industry?

A) In a complex and regulated industry such as aviation, or automotive manufacturing for that matter, we must practice Test DRIVEN Development. In this I mean it in the most strict sense- that tests are built and running BEFORE we begin design, or even sketches of our solutions. This is the only way to design safety and compliance in, and it ensures understanding of the regulatory and compliance tests as a test fixture had to be built (or the inspector booked and the process made known). It also is the method for rapid innovation, as once the battery of tests has been produced radical ideas may be evaluated objectively very, very quickly.

Q) If my company recovery proposal was retained would it be possible to get supporting advices from WIKISPEED and/or SolutionIQ ?

A) We would love to support you and your work, helping save jobs in this depressed region, and renew a culture of innovation there. WIKISPEED and SolutionsIQ together have services to aid in the restructuring and re-growth of troubled companies, we would love to help. My current SolutionsIQ consulting rate if you were to have me come out to work with the group there is $2,500 U.S. per day. We are able to re-launch an executive group or a delivery group in about 5 days for $20,000 U.S. If those are at all helpful we would love to be a part of building success for your company during restructuring.

-Joe Justice, Team Lead, WIKISPEED

5 disruptive ideas that WIKISPEED uses:

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:40:02 GMT

-committing to release a new version of all of your products every 7 days.

-welcoming your costumers and competitors to join the team, use your IP, and work on the next version of your product with you.

-choosing to do work that makes the world a better place- work worth doing, that focusses on value to the end users ahead profit generation.

-viewing all "competitors" as future partners.

-committing to radical transparency- publishing everything you learn, good and bad, as fast as you can and as clearly as you can.

This can be summed up as saying that we grade ourselves against the 4 agile values and 12 agile principles once every 7 days, and create at least one task we'll try within the next 7 days to either improve our grade or preserve our grade. -Joe

WIKISPEED, first car-maker in the world to accept Bitcoin [PRESS RELEASE]

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:06:35 GMT

July 24, 2012, Seattle, WA, USA. For Immediate Release:

WIKISPEED, first car-maker in the world to accept Bitcoin

WIKISPEED is excited to announce that starting today, it is possible to purchase WIKISPEED cars and car parts or to support our projects with Bitcoin. We believe the decentralised, open and internet-native nature of Bitcoin resonates deeply with the essence of the WIKISPEED project.

Our name, WIKISPEED, not only reflects the network origin of our project but more importantly, how the network itself is the core of our methodology. Like a Wikipedia article, our cars are designed and built by teams of collaborative volunteer teams distributed around the world. Similarly, our design and knowledge is open and available for anyone to use and improve. The ‘Wiki’ approach to physical manufacturing allows WIKISPEED teams to perform complex tasks in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of industry norms.

The networked and open nature of the Bitcoin monetary system allows its users to perform transactions at substantially cheaper cost and at substantially faster speed, worldwide. WIKISPEED and Bitcoin have in common that they enable freely-assembled teams and individuals to perform activities that previously required bureaucracies, companies, or even nations.

For the first time in history, it is now possible to purchase a car manufactured by a distributed, collaborative corporation using currency issued by no bank. We see this as a landmark in the maturation of the web: a step forward in the convergence of activities driven by networking logics in all fields of human life. This convergence of network culture, network manufacturing and network economics holds the promise to fundamentally change the world, bringing back power to the people. A world where an open source car can be purchased with open source money is already a new world with new and exciting potential.

Bitcoin can now be used to purchase the limited edition WIKISPEED SGT01, a replica of our X-Prize winning prototype for $25.000 USD. A comfortable commuter car, the WIKISPEED C3, is in development and will be Bitcoin-compatible at launch. We aim to deliver the C3 as a complete car for $17,995 USD and as a kit for $10,000 USD. All WIKISPEED cars are ultra-efficient, modular, safety-tested, and deliver 100mpg or more. He have also opened an online store where WIKISPEED car parts are available at http://wikispeed.com/Store. Because Bitcoin transfer fees are dramatically lower than those of conventional systems, we are offering a 3% discount in all our prices when payed in Bitcoin.

Funding for the development of the WIKISPEED C3 commuter car is currently being conducted through a crowdfunding campaing at Indiegogo.com. The costs the C3 development include crash test fees, fuel-efficiency testing, materials for prototyping and testing, expert reviews and fabrication, and additional tools. While the Indiegogo platform does not support Bitcoin contributions, these can be sent to the following Bitcoin address: 12JiynsQcfNLbeWnM7cdnYGo3axPXDcwCV

Support WIKISPEED and make the future of automotive transportation happen right now.

WIKISPEED, a Seattle, WA–based automotive-prototyping and manufacturing startup, is a registered automotive manufacturer able to sell complete vehicles in the United States and kit-built vehicles all over the world. WIKISPEED currently has collaborative operations in fifteen countries worldwide.

Our Bitcoin address for donations is 12JiynsQcfNLbeWnM7cdnYGo3axPXDcwCV

We are in the process of implementing an automated shopping cart solution. However, customers who wish to purchase from us using Bitcoin can contact us at info@WIKISPEED.com for detailed instructions.

Press Photos: http://www.wikispeed.com/press, http://www.jigsawrenaissance.org/.

Media Contact: WIKISPEED: info@WIKISPEED.com, 425-312-3996
Jigsaw Renaissance: Hello@jigsawrenaissance.org, 206-659-5260

Extreme Manufacturing in 5 Minutes

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:50:23 GMT

I recently gave a presentaiton to the Pacific Northwest Orginizational Development Network (PNODN). I had 90 minutes total, 10 times as many as TEDxRainier, and was able to dive deeper into Agile, Lean, Scrum, Kanban, and XP practices applied together for manufacturing and R&D. I called using all of these together "Extreme Manufacturing", or "XM" for short, to thank Kent Beck for his visionary work with Extreme Programming. As a challenge for myself and an opportunity to learn a lot about sharing what I'm leanring with WIKISPEED, I attempted to get 5 volunteers from the conference attendees to be useing XM in 5 short minutes. I'll update this blog post with a link to the video as soon as I have it back from the PNODN event organizers and have posted it to the WIKISPEED YouTube channel. Here are the 5 steps we went through together, accompanied by some coaching and, in the case of the first step, some very quick guided meditation/visioning:

Step 1: Become a Product Owner in 1 minute.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: You have a clear vision of a product or a project that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling deep in your tummy.

Step 2: Write 1 or more User Stories in 1 minute.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: you have written your vision formatted like: “AS someone I CAN do something SO THAT I experience a value that gives the Product Owner a warm-fuzzy feeling.”

Step 3: Write Acceptance Tests per User Story in 1 minute.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: Write down the simplest, quickest way to know your user gets the value, and give you that warm-fuzzy, in each of your User Stories. Maybe “I’ll ask my neighbor to try a mock-up of my product and film their reaction.”

Step 4: Write Tasks for each User Story in 1 minute.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: One or more actionable tasks to help make each user story come true. Things like “Plant 3 native trees” and “build a birdhouse”.

Step 5: Prioritize The User Stories.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: You have a column of your user stories, with the stories that give the most value to your user on top. Look for dependencies, if one story must come before another see if you can throw that story out or re-write it.

Step 6: Schedule your Demo of The User Stories.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: Your have a calendar item in your phone for a 1 hour block to execute each test to determine which stories are done. A 5 minute block can work if you need to.

Step 7: Schedule your Work Time on The User Stories.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: Your have a calendar item in your phone for a 1 hour block, days before the demo, to complete tasks. Hopefully with a pair, or better yet a team of pairs, to whom you will clearly articulate your vision.

And that was it! This was all framed in the rest of the 90 minute session, but I'd be very interested in if these 7 steps can come even close to standing on their own and delivering value to anyone. I'm alsways fascinated in trying to share the best I understand to date in the shortest amount of time responsible, so that folks can get right to using the parts of it that might translate to their work.

How a car can be fast and ultra-efficient

Thu, 31 May 2012 00:09:06 GMT

Q: How do you get over 100 mpg and have such quick cars?!

A: We use a Honda R18a engine, it's a 1.8l 4 cylinder gasoline engine (non-hybrid). The year it came out as one of the 3 engines available in the Honda Civic, it was rated by the EPA at 40mpg on the highway. We are just a bit LESS than half the weight of that Civic, and have right about half the aerodynamic drag. This roughly translates to twice the fuel economy and twice the acceleration as well. So now you have a car that get's 80 mpg and is 0-60 in 5 seconds. The additional fuel economy improvements come from some slick enhancements we make to the engine module, and those are the only aspect of WIKISPEED to date that we have applied to patent. -Joe Justice

Value Based Pricing

Wed, 09 May 2012 16:33:56 GMT

Q: Have you thought about ‘value based pricing’ your car? In other words, is $25K too low a price for the value you are providing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-based_pricing

A: For 'value based pricing', we revisit it regularly in team and it's always a consideration. The idea currently is to offer the vehicle to the widest part of the market- and in the U.S. the median vehicle transaction price is mid $17k- meaning that if we target a $17k product that delivers value new to the market we have access to the very largest portion of the auto buying public. Which could be good, one investment firm phrased it as "you wouldn't just join the big 3, you would be the big 1." And from my stand-point, that means we could make the largest environmental impact as well, which could be a good thing too. I see the race-track focused, 631hp, Corvette ZR1 picture from you; which magically still returns a 17 mpg epa combined. We may offer other configurations and platforms that resonate with buyers at very different price points - I know I also dream of a high-horsepower version with even lighter-weight components to compete with the coming Ferrari F70. In our configurations, we just might get 40 mpg combined even in a vehicle like that.

-Joe Justice

Manufacturing and Scaling

Tue, 01 May 2012 21:30:00 GMT

Some thoughts on how WIKISPEED works within or around traditional manufcaturing constraints:

Labor Pool: We invest thought each week into reducing the gap between anyone on the street and a productive Team WIKISPEED team member. We have re-factored our on-boarding process down to a 5 minute safety, tools, and process orientation after which people are able contribute to team where it is highest priority now and with a quality bar.

Here is an orientation video and shop tour at our Lynnwood, WA, prototyping and test shop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_RxF3uEfWk.

Note, the tour goes through the manufacturing and prototyping flow in reverse order, and it also may be fun to note the manufacturing flow starts in 3 bays (2, 3, 4) simultaneously.

Automation and Flow: Our current inertia is compacting our operations into a floor space the size of a 40’ shipping container. The gaol there is to ship micro-factories to the areas where purchasing is happening now, and load-balance them in real time by semi truck or boat, similar to Microsoft, Google, Twitter, and Facebook server farms. The shipping container factory flow-plan currently requires a pair of two people with a maximum crew of 8 people. Currently the prototype-flow starts with setting a stack of aluminum extrusions on labeled templates on the CNC router, we then hit "go" and then go off to assemble wiring harnesses and engine components. Then we come back and the entire chassis and suspension has been kitted in one setup operation. This is similar to some of the laser operations currently built at an agricultural machinery factory I recently toured. The chassis is then self jigging with 32 bolts- we could automate that later with an industrial robot but currently it takes a pair about 10 minutes for a practiced pair. The TIG welder has an option for CNC control in our same CNC gantry, and we may explore that in the future; currently we have a 6 hour manual weld step there. meanwhile the CNC router, the same one, is now "printing" (subtractive rapid prototyping) our foam slabs for whatever shape this car body will be. By the time the welding is done the foam buck is ready for carbon to be laid on, which takes 8 hours. While the carbon cures we connect the engine wiring to the engine module and unit-test the engine module, and assemble the interior. The carbon cures 8 hours later and we trim the flashing, install the LED lighting and wiper, install the windows, and attach it to the chassis. Although we aren't currently in volume scenarios, we are building our 5th and 6th cars right now in 2 hour chunks on Thursday nights, it looks like from start to finish we'll be 3 8 hour shifts and we can have 3 cars in progress at a time per shipping container micro-factory. Automation does appear to be able to reduce the time, and Open Source Ecology is working on a low-cost owner-maintainable industrial robot (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Industrial_Robot). We are talking with them about prototyping it using what we've learned about Arduino control of linear actuators, and that could be awesome.

simplification and mistake proofing: Scrum methodology has a kaizen event/continuous improvement event called a Retrospective every 7 days. Every 7 days we collaborate as a team to create backlog items that simplify, reduce waste, decrease our environmental impact, reduce cost, increase ergonomics, increase self-explanation, etc. These are then put in the backlog with the same tasks as build and deliveries according to their priority. The time spent on implementing these tasks is not predetermined but is instead dictated by priority relative to the other work in the backlog. In addition to the weekly retrospectives, we hold retrospectives after key events like customer deliveries, test drives of new prototypes, auto-shows, etc. This is augmented by Test Driven Manufacturing, where tests fixtures are built for a new part before the part is even designed. By designing parts to pass tests, we avoid many types of complexity and have simplification up-front. This also lets us reduce any complexity that is not required to pass each test. Each test is from a customer’s perspective, something that is actually meaningful to them, such as fuel efficiency or how they will activate the turn signals.

Safety

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:09:06 GMT

The best case scenario is for us to find a tragic safety flaw. That means we have found it before we have any more cars on the road. That said, we have conducted simulated and physical impact testing, in credentialed facilities, to national standards, and do have high confidence that we surpass road legal safety specification minimums and deliver a high level of safety. That is to say, while we have no reason to suspect a safety flaw, we must not ever stop examining for one, and must always take advantage of knowledgeable folks offering to help collaborate with us on safety systems and testing. There will always be un-informed nay-sayers, and we have to be comfortable with that too and not take time doing more than sharing evidence with those that are not informed or interested in helping us improve. And, a very serious note on this same line: We make cars. Some day, someone will die in an accident involving a WIKISPEED car. We must be as emotionally ready as possible for that, and know that we have done our absolute utmost to protect those inside and outside our vehicles, and yet be mature enough to know that infinite crash safety does not yet exist even though we will relentlessly pursue it. -Joe Justice

Book List for getting started with Agile, Lean, Scrum, and XP

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:03:49 GMT

A good start can be "Kanban". This book is specific to software, but a good start.

The high performing teams come from Scrum, and the seminal book on Scrum is: Agile Project Management with Scrum.

Then, we use Extreme Programming, the seminal work on that is: Extreme Programming.

All of these are merely implementations of the 12 principles of Agile Development, applied to non-software centric applications, which can be read here. That's it, there are just 12 principles in all of this. Scrum lets us run our teams with minimum process overhead via clearly defined rolls and responsibilities. XP let's us solve problems quickly. Kanban gives us the minimum process overhead to maximize flow, and minimize any time spent doing anything but creatively solving problems.

There is a bit more, too, but that is all the essentials, and yes it needs to be collated into a comprehensive practice so it can be more easily re-created around the world. Hopefully someone can help us tell the story in a concise book, and hopefully a set of concise YouTube videos.

-Joe

What do we mean by "Modular"?

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:19:00 GMT

Here's a 4 minute video of a Jeep getting torn down and reassembled: http://www.wimp.com/rebuildjeep/ Sent in by Team WIKISPEED member Bob Stuart. He titled the post "Historic Modularity".

This is awesome, and good to see the evidence of how modularity has evolved. The module contracts in software are broad, so as many types of devices/software can connect to them as responsible. Think USB- it isn't just keyboards, but printers, Christmas trees, Nerf missile batteries. If the jeep suspension allowed tank treads or many types of articulated legs to be attached without changing the rest of the jeep- then it would be modular. As it sits- what Willys did in 1941 was amazing- they maximized the speed and efficiency to swap interchangeable parts, and then software maximized the speed to make change (Agile). What might come next?

-Joe

Enabling Emerging Markets to Manufacturer Their Own

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:26:58 GMT

// Enabling Emerging Markets to Manufacture Their Own Ultra-efficient Transportation, WIKISPEED and Open Source Ecology Announce Partnership in Open-Hardware Movement//

Seattle, WA, and Maysville, MO, USA (February 24, 2012)

The open-hardware movement got a tremendous boost today when WIKISPEED, an innovative automotive company building modular, high-performance cars using agile design principles, and Open Source Ecology (OSE), a group committed to providing free plans and processes necessary for building the global economy, announced that they are teaming up to revolutionize transportation in the developing world.

Taking on traditional, proprietary manufacturing R & D, the two companies aim to create an open-source product-development methodology that would allow communities around the world to quickly develop their own machinery and processes to support themselves, removing a dependency on industrialized nations for costly solutions.

OSE CEO Marcin Jakubowski is developing the Global Village Construction Set, identifying essential machines that are required to build and maintain an entire economy. Jakubowski’s work includes publishing the blueprints for each piece of equipment and making the plans available for free via the Internet.

Above: Open Source Ecology is developing the Global Village Construction Set, the minimum set of tools and machinery for any community to produce and maintain a modern infrastructure in its entirety.

For his part, Joe Justice, founder and team lead of WIKISPEED, has pioneered the use of agile rapid-delivery processes (the same method used by leading software companies) for physical manufacturing and complex problem solving. This application has been highly successful, allowing Justice to design and build a high-performance modular car that gets 100 mpg and meets all U.S. safety standards, using a globally distributed team, of volunteers in just three months.

Above: The Roadster is only one of WIKISPEED’s modular, configurable cars.

Together, Jakubowski and Justice will collaborate on a modular car, which can be manufactured globally using only the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). OSE will adapt WIKISPEED’s current car designs, making them compatible with their GVCS manufacturing infrastructure, while WIKISPEED will provide automotive design, CAD for their current ultra-efficient car, agile training, and efficiency consulting to expedite design and development. The finished plans will be open-source and available to anyone. The car will target the needs of developing countries and economy transport while retaining U.S. automotive safety standards.

According to Justice, “This is clearly the right thing to do. OSE is creating a new template for a global village, built around devices and equipment that even small, remote communities can maintain themselves. The modular WIKISPEED car makes sense in a community like this, and with OSE we will be developing a version of the car able to be produced and maintained with the OSE Global Village Construction Set anywhere in the world. The GVCS is completely revolutionary in enabling even small communities to create and maintain every piece of a thriving modern economy with contemporary comforts. Team WIKISPEED is very pleased to be helping reduce the environmental footprint while accelerating innovation and business productivity.”

Jakubowski calls the new collaboration a “bold and noteworthy step toward the open-source economy, and it will serve to encourage other change-makers to join the effort to invent distributive enterprise.” Together, the companies will work to “unleash the collaborative potential of the open-source hardware movement—Industry 2.0. We are pursuing a system of optimized production where everyone has free access to state-of-the-art product designs and blueprints, which they can, in turn, produce within their local economy. It’s an idea whose time has come.”

About WIKISPEED

Team WIKISPEED is a green automotive-development company that builds cars utilizing agile methodology and has prototyped a mass-manufacturable, ultra-low-cost, 100-mpg commuter car. Based in Seattle and led by Joe Justice, WIKISPEED is an all-volunteer distributed agile/scrum team: members contribute their work from various locations globally and iteratively enhance the vehicle every two weeks. This model allows extremely high-speed development, especially when paired with rapid-prototyping manufacturing tools.

About Open Source Ecology Open Source Ecology, founded in 2004 by Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D., has a stated mission to create the open-source economy, which, according to Jakubowski, “optimizes both production and distribution by publishing its trade secrets openly.” Jakubowski has recently been distinguished as a 2012 TED Senior Fellow and a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow for his work on the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS), an open technological platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the fifty different industrial machines necessary to building a small civilization with modern comforts.

For More information: Jakubowski’s TED talk Justice’s TEDx talk OSE website Team WIKISPEED website Shuttleworth Foundation website

Team WIKISPEED - WIKISPEED Fuel Efficient Cars

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:25:09 GMT

— Welcome to the WIKISPEED Blog. WIKISPEED is a Seattle based, 100% volunteer, green automotive-prototyping company. Led by founder and CEO Joe Justice, WIKISPEED is a collaborative team of skilled volunteers working remotely from all over the world, dedicated to offering safe, low-cost, ultra-efficient, mass-production road-legal vehicles.

WIKISPEED was launched in 2006 to take on the challenge of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, a $10M prize purse international challenge to produce 100+ mpg vehicles. In just 3 months, with no financial backing, the team created the SGT-01, the car that achieved 10th place out of 136 entrants.

WIKISPEEDʼs vision is to change the way manufacturers and consumers think about cars. The team uses a collaborative process of rapid prototyping to build modular cars, where improvements can be incorporated immediately. Resulting in 100 mpg+ cars that have a total cost of ownership similar to existing economy cars. WIKISPEED Team of Volunteers includes NASA engineers, technicians from Apple Computer, the gentleman who founded MIT’s material sciences laboratory, a person who managed the largest military research facility in the world, Google and Microsoft employees, aerodynamicists, tire compound engineers, machinists, fabricators, composites specialists, simulation and CAD staff, alongside passionate house-parents pairing with their kids, grade school through graduate school students, Lean Startup veterans, and every day heroes changing the world by making 100 mpg cars fast, safe, affordable, and with a total cost of ownership similar to existing economy cars.

Why the 2015 Acura NSX might change the world again

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:45:00 GMT

Ok, I love cars. That's obvious. And I have thing for the NSX. This is going to turn into a long post, so skim or skip if you aren't interested in diving into why I get so excited about certain transportation problems that I can't sleep.

In 1989, Ferrari had a mid-engine car for sale, the 348. It often didn't start during the first 3 or even 10 twists of the key, and it frequently sputtered out with engine or electrical issues. The driver's feet weren't straight ahead of the driver- the pedals were off center to make room for the thick front wheel, putting the brake pedal directly ahead of the driver and the accelerator pedal far to the right (in left hand drive cars). The car was difficult to shift, and difficult to drive quickly. Crashing them was common due to unstable rear ends and missing gears during shifting was common- or even cutting one's hand on the shifter. It produced a, then amazing, 300 hp and weighed 3071lbs, meaning it had almost one horsepower for every 10lbs it had to move. It had almost no trunk or storage and oil changes could cost more than $1,000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_348

Lamborghini had the Countach, which had about the same service record, reliability record, and drive-ability. It produced a ridiculous 414 hp in United States trim. It had no rear window visibility and driver's reported changing lanes required a leap of faith that no cars were near. Even the turn signals were reportedly difficult to operate while driving.

These were the Supercars of 1989, completely un-safe and completely un-attainable, and very fast if you took the time to learn how to drive them and had a staff mechanic to keep them driving. They had an engine mounted in the middle of the car, like a true race car for ideal balance and power delivery, screaming as it spat our power until it lost tune and died while driving.

The production Acura NSX was unveiled to the auto show public in February 1989.

It had more visibility front, side, and rear than a Honda Accord. It had a similar cost to change the oil as a Honda civic (less than $20). It was faster at the track than the Ferrari 348 and Lamborghini Countach (some tracks, tracks with long straight-aways allowed the Italian cars, especially the Countach, to whip by as they attained their higher top speed. But the NSX would catch up and pass again during breaking and cornering).

It also cost less. Safety testing was not quite what it is now, but the NSX was believed to be far more safe as well. It was labelled by the press as the best handling and best driving car in the world. It was also labelled the Everyday Supercar, able to driven to the grocery store just as easily as a civic, by anyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6f-rEJwAWU

The following Ferrari and Lamborghini models were radically different, scrambling to find the ease of use, safety, and reliability their customers suddenly knew they could demand.

In 2002, Honda made an evolution of the NSX, the NA2 NSX Type R.

At that time vehicles made in Japan were limited by an agreement between automakers, that each car would not be advertised with more than 280ps (276 hp) to prevent run-away marketing on horsepower alone. The NSX type R, then, was a very serious expression of building a road legal racing vehicle (R is for Racing), meeting road legal safety standards, without relying on power to do so. It regularly defeated Ferrari and Lamborghini's newer, track focused cars, the Ferrari 360 Modena Stradale and the Lamborghini Gallardo. It became, then, the most fuel efficient super car to date, and retained an absurdly affordable cost of ~$38.00 to change the oil despite it's $120,000 purchase price (half that of the Ferrari and Lamborghini it could keep up with and even overtake at the track).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00QG0VAWrdI

This completely captivated my mind. How could this car be safer, less expensive, better handling, more utilitarian, more fuel efficient, and faster? 2002 was right when I was becoming interested in cars, and this mathematical puzzle pulled me in. The answers I was able to come up with have a whole lot to do with how WIKISPEED was eventually able to tie for 10th place in the Mainstream class of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.

http://world.honda.com/NSX/

In 2005, Honda ceased production of the NSX. They cited expense to re-design yet again to meet new turn-signal visibility requirements, among others. Very slow sales from their, then, 15 year old car (Porche just announced the current 911 will be with us for 14 years before its next re-design) had to have been a factor as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53c6o_cNPEo

It's not coincidence that I registered WIKISPEED as a road legal automotive manufacturer in 2006. I had just started learning, and understanding a little bit, as to why the NSX Type R could do so much with so little, and it was gone. The NSX Type R was never sold in America, it was sold in Japan only and just 1 was officially imported into the UK, and that's it. And then it was over. But I was learning, scheming, plotting, planning, and the WIKISPEED SGT01 has almost an identical wheelbase and layout to the NSX.

Just today, in Detroit, MI, 12months after WIKISPEED debuted the Michigan built production prototype of the WIKISPEED SGT01, Acura unveiled a concept of the next NSX. It is a hybrid V6, once again mounted in the middle of the car for ideal balance and the most efficient power delivery. It is augmented, this time, with two electric motors independently spinning the front wheels for even quicker dynamic turning, braking and accelrating. And the V6 in the middle? It's a hybrid. Honda's President and CEO had this to say:

"Like the first NSX, we will again express high performance through engineering efficiency," added Takanobu Ito, who led the development of Acura's first NSX supercar. "In this new era, even as we focus on the fun to drive spirit of the NSX, I think a supercar must respond positively to environmental responsibilities."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzaynkoC04k&feature=youtu.be

This car is, for a super sports car, for a super car, moving the entire world, once again, in the right direction. In 1989 the Acura (Honda) NSX moved all cars to be more safe, more predictible to drive, more utilitarian, less wasteful, by showing the wold that none of these things needed to be given up even for a super car. And now Honda/Acura is doing it again. They are showing the world that even low emissions, low fuel consumption, and further enhanced safety are compatible with even super car ownership. This makes this technology more palatable for every one else, for every car else, and suddenly they have justified and validated green tech even in the supercar category. Thank you Acura, you've just once again shepherded the world to be a better place. That's my take on it. Enthusiasts could make different cases, and likely be correct, but there is also evidence for the case I've made above, and I'm not alone. Journalists from Road and Track, Autoblog, and Jaloponik have posted same-day articles on this revolutionary super car and are singing a similar song.

So what does this mean for WIKISPEED? This means I desperately want to drive, own, study, measure, understand the new NSX when it goes on sale in 2015. But even better than that, they have just upped the game. They have just given us a challenge to rise and meet. I now how a mental sparring partner for the next 3 years while Acura continues the development of the NSX 2.0. I need to make WIKISPEED's sporting variant (as opposed to the comfy commuter car) more desirable to me than the NSX 2.0. That means Acura levels of panel-gap fit. That means Acura levels of weather protection, sound absorption, comfort, convenience, ergonomics, and utility. That means NSX 2.0 levels of handling, predictability, and driver communication. And as that is a passion that fuels itself, it will naturally refine, and produce, the C3 Comfy Commuter Car, in the same way that the NSX produced the engineering excellence that produced the Acura Legend sedan, and on to the present TL sedan. Yep, the bar was just raised, a lot, and my quirky obsessive personality is quite happy it has been raised. Thank you Acura.