Modular car construction

[aburt]

As in, easy to pull out and plug in new pieces, , like a new dashboard, or the instruments within it, new steering wheel, seats, window controls, engine, body parts, you name it. With a uniform interface across all cars. Radios are the closest, but even those often require pulling the thing apart and they don't have a universal interface. I'd like: flip an unlock release latch, pull out, push in, lock.

Think how much innovation there'd be. All sorts of companies could make components. Do it yourself components too.

(And the chances of that happening are..... Hey, one can wish, right?)

[cj7hawk]

I like this idea - Like the IBM-PC of cars...

Something that starts with a modular chassis which takes different wheels ( Perhaps with hub motors, Maybe a petrol/ethanol/turbine option) seats and other items ) right up to standard interfaces.

A lot of this exists already. The introduction of CAN ( Control Area Network ) was to get different parts of a car to talk to each other over a common bus. Like "Ethernet" for vehicles. Everything from drive-by-wire to indicator lamps and fuel tanks.

I especially like your slant on this to take it all the way to the dashboard. Just think of the franken-cars that would exist after 1 or 2 accidents?

A few people have already created cars like this - but none are for sale yet. Just concept vehicles.

Still, some cars share modular components. The Silvia and 180SX are a good example. Because the panels are all modular and the chassis almost the same, owners often swap the parts around, which gave birth to the Sileighty.

But a completely modular car that you can strip down and rebuild as anything from a sports car to a pickup truck? I love that idea. I'll add my wish to yours...

David.

[wswears]

One of the things they set out to do with the Blackhawk/S60 helicopter was to make the components much easier to remove and install. Engines could be replaced using only 5 wrenches, or some such number. It's still a really good idea. What I'm seeing in the car industry though, is the opposite, with more and more stuff becoming proprietary. I submit tire pressure sending units that require specialized software resets if you change tires. I live in Alaska, and drive snow tires for about half the year. This requires me to get my pressure sensor system reset by a professional twice a year.