Silicon Valley start-up OSVehicle just unveiled the world’s first modular, open-source Self-Driving electric car. The EDIT is unique in that it can be completely customized – companies can tweak the self-driving hardware, add a refrigerator or change its styling to meet their needs in half the time and with a lower investment than a regular service oriented vehicle.
The EDIT’s ‘Vehicle-as-a-Service’ design allows companies to quickly deliver models tailored for each service and country, like food delivery and ride and car sharing. OSVehicle’s goal is to make it easier entrepreneurs to create new projects and startups for the first time in the automotive industry.
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The EDIT is ideal for ride and car sharing, since it is modular, customizable and upgradeable to prevent obsolescence – a problem with today’s ride sharing vehicles, which only last about 2 years on average. As a food delivery vehicle, the EDIT would be designed from the ground up with the ovens and refrigerators that are needed to improve food quality and temperature.
Lastly as a self-driving vehicle, the EDIT has a leg up on traditional cars that are being outfitted with self-driving tech, since it would be designed from the ground up as a self-driving vehicle. According to OSVehicle, companies struggle with reverse engineering and to cost-effectively integrate new technology into the closed design of the traditional car. By adding non-integratable hardware to existing production vehicles, the interior and exterior designs of these vehicles could seem compromised. OSVehicle hasn’t announced the pricing or availability for the EDIT.
