Announcing the Winners of Manhattan Motors

What a day, what a day! Three new winners are welcomed to the podium, and we're off to the races again. The Local Motors office is abuzz with activity.

On Thursday we will welcome our Board Members to Wareham. Then on Friday, we will welcome a community favorite to our humble abode, and to our team. Who are we welcoming? You'll have to check Jay's blog on Friday to find out!

I had the opportunity to chat with LR today. What a class act. He is quick to quip and has a sharp understanding of Local Motors' fit in the current automotive landscape. He is, quite simply, one of us. I will post a short interview with LR in the next day or so.

I am hoping to interview eclips, our FIRST PLACE WINNER tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!

Today we continued our talks about the Glossary & Tutorial section and the new ongoing competition we want to run. Look for a formal announcement soon.

Because it was suggested by LR, we talked briefly about making the voting very public. Right now everyone is welcome to vote in privacy, and no one will really know how they earned their score. But, if voting was made public, if you can see how I vote on each design - you can a.) ask me why I voted the way I did, or b.) begin to understand my personal tastes better. Overall, a public voting system could clear up the traditional immaturity of voting your competition/peers down - if everyone could see you do it, would you still do it?

I like to think that I would not vote my competition down, but I can understand the temptation. What do you think of a public voting option? Should we leave traditional voting constructs in place, or shake it up a bit?

The competition was a great one, and a close one! Here are the top ten placers as you voted them:

1.) Green Apple, by eclips
2.) Morphing Concept, by LR
3.) N.Y. Electric, by piero
4.) The Mod, by otnudesign
5.) Hultaics, by CAEMDesign
6.) Cambiare, by Chezhian350
7.) Mikrus, by labedz
8.)The City Bull, by SergeTotsky
9.) Zeropolis, by Iman
10.) Local Motors K3, by Baptiste Mathieu

And one honorable mention: The Bubbly, by jankooo which was submitted late but gained excellent marks and feedback.

Congratulations to all!

3 Big Announcements, and It's Only Monday

Tomorrow, Sept. 30th at 10am est (-4GMT), we will announce the next round of Local Motors Competition Champions. I am excited to go through the competition wrap-up process. I get to send out the participant certificates, a memento for all who participate. And, possibly my favorite part, I get to interview the competition winners.

We have several "pots on to boil" right now. We are working on the next competition, a challenge to design a vehicle for HAWAII. Feel free to gather your inspiration now, and use this as an excuse to peruse photos of beaches, sunsets and bikinis but don't forget to research the islands a few miles inland. You will find cities, mountains, wildlife and adventures. Expect to see the competition brief next week.

Also, Jay, Ben and I talked today about a different kind of challenge. Lately the comments and feedback on the site, particularly on the competition entries, have been awesomely specific and valuable. We want to reward and incent this kind of contribution. To do so, we are coming up with a plan to give away a few really exciting things (possibly Wacom Tablets!) to the most outstanding contributors. Local Motors is one of the ONLY places where designers of any skill level can gain feedback from a diverse community of designers, enthusiasts and engineers. This feedback is invaluable. Insightful comments, glossary entries, or uploading tutorials in the glossary will now be rewarded.

By the end of the week we will have the rewards sussed out, and possibly a few early winners to announce by early next week. If you have any suggestions, software or tools you would like to own, feel free to drop me a line here! As always, we are open to your ideas.

Insiteful Comments

I just finished voting on the Manhattan Motors competition entries. We have recently welcomed several outstanding designers who have come not only to share their work, but to also share their opinion and perspective. no.9, idesigncars, nurlan and braunarsch have been present and offered their thoughts on almost every design. Thank you to everyone who has participated, and thank you to these 4 rockstars in particular. The feedback for this competition has been pretty fantastic.

Remember, the more feedback you give, the more others will be inclined to return the favor and comment on your designs. Don't forget, Local Motors is BUILDING cars. If there is one that you want to see built, speak now! What do you like? What don't you like? What changes would you like to see? There is no right or wrong answer, no right or wrong comment. But for the first time ever, a car company and a community full of designers are asking for your feedback on cars which may potentially drive on the roads in your city. Don't you want to have a say?

Your votes & comments are important; but your votes only count if you do it by 23:59 -4GMT (11:59p edt) !

Only 3 Days Left to Vote!!

Only 3 days left to vote for the Manhattan Motors Competition designs. Usually I don't blog about the voting reminders until a day or two before the voting deadline, but this time we have 47 entries and we may need 3 days to vote on all of them.

You will see everything from compact electric SUV's to Coupe-Cabrio Crossover to carriage inspired 2-seater to glass-topped compact sports car. If I had to pick a single winner I'm not sure I would be able to. LM Community Designers have created vehicles for New Yorkers with many different needs and desires, and many of these designs are very, VERY good. Thankfully, Local Motors is directed by the community so the winners will always be deserving.

City C by Palethorpe

Zeropolis by Iman

EVM by American Thunder

I am interested to see which style vehicle YOU think best suits New York. I know two things for certain, it will be electric and it will be uniquely styled, and uniquely New York.

This competition is special and unlike the others because for the first time we are encouraging LM community members to consider the availability and possibility of locally constructed alternative fueling networks. Manhattan is one of the most congested cities in the United States, and an electric charging network like Better Place could significantly reduce harmful particulate emissions - not to mention noise pollution. We are inspired by Better Place and our LM community commrades who have created exciting options for an EV network full of exciting designs.

The voting deadline is this Sunday, September 28th at 23:59.

Vote here.

The Basics - Evening with Jason Fried of 37Signals

Yesterday Andy, Kamil and I had the opportunity to listen to a live interview with Jason Fried of 37 Signals at an ITA event. I love these types of events where networking, food, and a great success story leave me feeling inspired with a full belly and a lot to think about.

I expected to enjoy the interview with Jason, but having read the 37 Signals Blog on a fairly regular basis and having read the book, Getting Real, I wasn't expecting to walk away with any revelations.

Well, I did. The word "revelations" may be a bit dramatic. Let's just say I was reminded of a few things that have been very important to me and very important to all of us at Local Motors.

Jason loves the obvious. He embraces clarity (not simplicity) and makes you think that if running your business isn't simple, well, for the most part it should be.

Personally my take-aways are these:

1.) Focus on the things in your business which do not change.
2.) Out-teach vs. Outspend
3.) Build an audience

The first point was a fantastic wake-up call for me. You would think that in the world of technology and 37 Signals everything must change at a rapid pace; but there are core commitments which remain the same and for each business these core commitments may be different. At Local Motors we are still adding to our list.

So far, the commitments at LM which do not change are the following:

1.) Fantastic customer/community service and site support.
2.) Exciting LM Rally Fighter development content, updated in real time.
3.) Competitions & Checkups, opportunities to gain & give feedback and develop individual design skills.
4.) Build awesome cars

It's not a long list, but each commitment is important. To our site and community, these four things are our differentiating factors and your reason for coming back day after day. As our community grows and demands increase the suggestion to "focus on the things which do not change" is a welcomed reminder.

Out-teach vs. outspend is something we at Local Motors are well familiar with. We are building a community based on exciting design, education, sharing and an open development process. Though we may spend some money on advertising in select locations, the success of our marketing strategy is not based on the depth of our pockets. For us, the answer is simple and the community has shown us that if the product is good and sharing is permitted, then community and customers will come. When engaging long-term community members, out teaching will win against outspending any day.

Number three, build an audience, is really part of number two. The word "audience" belongs to Jason; for us, the word is "community". So in summary, my reminder was to focus on the important things; focus on teaching and sharing with the community. If you provide an aspirational product and share something worth experiencing, then you will develop an audience. Your audience will become your customer. For us, our community will become our customer.

Back to basics. Not that I was doing rocket science before, but sometimes I'm tricked into thinking rocket science is necessary. This is good news for me since I'm a mediocre rocket scientist at best. Fortunately, I can be a kick-ass pro at the basics.

The Glossary has Arrived!

The resolution is a bit poor, but you get the idea! We are very excited about the new glossary section, and we hope you will all contribute.

New LM Glossary

Tomorrow's New Feature

The groundwork has been laid for a new educational and interactive feature for the Local Motors Community. While we strive to keep our design process and build process inviting and open, we also want to share the knowledge we have personally generated from years in the industry. But, why stop there? Our community is now well over 1,000 active users so no matter how great our team's understanding of engineering or design is, it will seem paltry to that of 1,000 unique perspectives backed by many, many years of aggregated experience.

Here is a sneak peak, but you have to look closely to see:



This new feature is a very simple way for us to share what we know. Get ready to contribute in a new way!

Competition Checklist

With four competitions under our belt I think our process and expectations are becoming more and more clear. In an attempt to help clarify the competition requirements even more, I have compiled a list of requirements which have been somewhat overlooked this time around.

Print them out, check them off but don't forget to include these important features in your design entry:

-Easy Battery Replacement
-Accommodations for front end charging
-Room for on-board charging system
-Acknowledge that the vehicle is ELECTRIC
-Tail Lamps in the required location
-Headlights in the required location
-Turn signals in the required location
-Number of Passengers; either 1, 2, 3 or 4 – no more & no less
-Location of Battery of specified size

Please submit your unique vehicle design for Manhattan Better Place and sketch your vehicle in 3 views, including a side view.

Can't wait to see what you can do!!

New Search Feature!

It may sound simple, but it has helped our Jay Rogers sleep better at night. For days Jay was trying to recall a design he had seen on Local Motors. He knew the name of it included the word "Taurus", not the Ford variety, but he couldn't find it!

This persuaded Tim to add a simple search feature on the site.

Taurus by Neo, Local Motors Community Member

Now, if you are looking for friends, specific designs, or for reference to a specific school you can simply use the search feature. The results are not super refined, but this feature certainly does the trick. Jay found the "Taurus" right away.

How do Local Motors Competition winners spend their cash?

Local Motors competition prizes have varied from $10,000USD to $200USD. For first time competition participant and 3rd place winner Chezhian Natarajan, $200 goes a long way!

Once in a while we will ask participants what they plan to do with their cash, and sometimes they have great answers. Sangho Kim planned to pay off a little school debt; logical plan, but not all together the most exciting thing I can think of. Sangho, you're a good responsible man - but I hope you bought your girlfriend something nice :)

Chezhian on the other hand, probably wouldn't make much of a dent in school debt with the $200 he won. But, he was able to go to the Italian Grand Prix! For an F1 Ferrari enthusiast, this experience is probably worth far more than a non-F1 lover can understand.

The Domus Academy crew: Siddharth, Franco from Canada, Jowoong from Korea, and Chezhian from India

Chezhian's View

Shot of the Crowd
By: Chezhian Natarajan

THE team which inspired the trip
By: Chezhian Natarajan

Even though his team did not win this time, Chezhian was able to see Sebastian Vettel and Toro Rosso make history. Prior to Chezhian, I didn't think much about how winners spent their winnings. Now, I'm curious to find out how everyone else celebrates this accomplishment.

Also, we love it when you guys send us pictures!

We are only two weeks away from finding another Local Motors Competition Winner. Are you ready for Manhattan Motors? Whoever you are, be ready; I'm going to ask you how you plan to spend your loot.

The Local Motors Experience

Tonight Andy and I had dinner at Bhabi's on Devon Avenue in the Northern part of Chicago. We love Indian food, and we find the best near Devon. Usually we go to Hemma's but since Hemma's was closed due to moving, we went to Bhabi's.

To my fantastic surprise Bhabi's was wonderful. Not only was the food and selection fantastic, but "Bobby" himself was a treat. He greeted us with welcome familiarity and by the end of the meal, I met his wife, knew of his daughters, and heard the story of how his family began in the restaurant business. Bobby told Andy and I that we were family and always welcome.

This was our FIRST time at this gentleman's restaurant, and I can assure you we will go back!

I can imagine that this type of personal attention is not always welcome. Personally, I love it. This big city is my home, and because of the wonderful people it feels intimate and manageable. Because Bobby took the time to engage Andy and I in conversation, I know more about the food I am eating; both the stories in the recipes and the fresh ingredients. Bobby directed us on our dinner selection and bread pairings and in so doing helped us assemble a wonderful meal. This type of direction is what customer service is all about, answering questions, giving suggestions and understanding.

This is an awesome if not basic lesson to take to Local Motors. The personal touch can not be underrated. Connecting with our core enthusiasts and customers is a must. There was a lot of talk last week about the Local Motors Experience. We will continue to talk about it today, and I will have Bobby in mind.

LM Meetings Part Deux

I love reaching the end of the day and feeling accomplished. This is actually necessary for me in order to get a good night's rest! Tonight, I will sleep very, very well.

My flight to Chicago leaves from Providence, RI tomorrow at 7:55am. I am sure to be tired, and not the best company, but despite my groggy appearance I'll have you know I will be EXCITED. We had a very productive 2-day meeting in Wareham, and I feel anxious to move forward and execute!

Most relevant to you (except you Aunt Diney, I'm speaking more toward the Community Members:o)), is the 12 month Competition Schedule we have created. We have JUICY competitions in the works, and we are hoping the strategic timing and positioning of each competition will help spread the word about Local Motors, and in so doing, spread the word about the fantastic designers in the community.

Tim, Jay and I also hashed out even more regarding the personalized LM Pages - and new homepage ideas. We are currently looking for an excellent web designer, so if you know of any who are talented with Web 2.0 experience, I hope you'll tell them to check us out!

We also talked about ways to make the Local Motors experience much more real - regular podcasts, videos and pictures. We are moving FAST on the development of the Rally Fighter. I know the community appreciates seeing the updates in Vehicle Build, but there is so much you guys still don't get to see. Behind the scenes stuff. Juicy informative exciting stuff. We want to find a way to share more, while still staying on schedule with the LM RF development. This is tricky since taking time to create podcasts, videos, and pictures could potentially take time away from the RF Development. However we find a way to do it, the point is that we really feel our doors need to be opened even more, and more needs to be shared.

So... that's the recap, folks. I am off to bed at an unusually eary hour so I can make my unusually early flight. It's not a 6am flight, but it is QUITE early for a Saturday morning.

Wish me luck!

Coffee Shop Meeting & Upcoming Changes

I'm in Wareham! Last time I was in town I took some beautiful pictures of the area to show my mother - I think you guys may enjoy seeing the scenery as well.

Though it's beautiful here, the scenery is not my reason for visiting. Tim, Jay and I met for an all day off-site meeting at Uncle Jon's Coffee Shop in Wareham, and we discussed future changes and additions for our website as well as development of our community. As I mentioned earlier this week, we paid particular attention to recruiting more builders and car enthusiasts who will also be our core customer base. While we LOVE our designers and current community members, we need to increase not only the volume of our community but also the local concentration of members in LM targeted areas, and the unique perspective from these local members.

We are also thinking of ways to increase activity of current members on the site. We discussed ways to increase the usability and functionality of the site in general, and ways to enrich the site with content relevant to individual members. In order to cater to individual community members, we are planning a new personalized space to sort through all of the Local Motors content you care about - and really, only the content you care about. While everyone will still be able to peruse the rest of the website (with increased organization and usability), having relevant and interesting information and messages at your fingertips will surely make LM a more enjoyable daily experience.

In addition to a personalized experience, we are going to make the virtual aspect of Local Motors more localized. While continuing to celebrate our awesome global community, we will hone in on the top 20 markets Local Motors is focusing on in the US. These top 20 markets are only a beginning, but in order to cultivate these communities and start churning ideas and requests, we need a point of reference on the website. I'm excited to start relating current and new checkups to specific cities. We see fantastic work within our group, but it could be exponentially more attractive once we put that vehicle in context. This addition will ideally be a great asset for Local Motors to gauge customer desire, a way for designers to gain very relevant feedback, and a way for builders and enthusiasts to jump in the mix with not only generalized design feedback but personal preferences based on local experiences.

We covered MANY things today, and there is much more work to be done in order to fulfill these new goals. In order to be brief (and get a good nights sleep) I will save a bit of the conversation to share with you tomorrow.

1,000 Active Users!

Today we passed 1,000 active users! While this is exciting, all I can think about is that this number will someday soon feel like a drop in the bucket. While every member is important, part of our strength will be our numbers and our ability to connect with car enthusiasts everywhere.

Carbodydesign.com has over 50,000 unique viewers per month! This website is outstanding, and far different than Local Motors. While there is not a website, community, or car company that operates the same way as Local Motors, we still want to choose a benchmark as a goal to work toward and gauge our progress against.

Though we may regret it, or need to adjust it, I would like to set a goal for new community members from now until January, and then another goal for 2009.

Local Focus

I've been thinking about the "Local" in Local Motors lately. Since we are the only car company focusing on the desires and experiences of local car enthusiasts, we are in a position to amazingly strong physical and virtual community.

Now, how do we do it?

Well, we start out by reaching out to enthusiasts personally, one by one. Then, we make a special home and destination for them on www.local-motors.com. This we have done, but we will continue the personalized options for builders as we grow. The idea of creating not only a connection between buyers/enthusiasts and a global community of designers, but also with a local community of enthusiasts is essential to building the most exciting cars per region and essential to reflecting local DNA in design.

While we are interested in the opinions and desires of all car enthusiasts and design lovers, it is especially interesting to see which designs sing out to enthusiasts from particular local communities. For this reason, I think we need to show some local pride on the site and ask our members where they are from. Then we will understand their perspective and in some cases, the root of their desire. Though we are in touch with these car lovers personally and have mounds of data which reflect market desire, we want to see enthusiasts come together on local-motors.com, reach out directly to designers and in the end, help guide us to building the vehicle of their dreams. This is what we are working toward and, though it happens every day to some extent, we are eager to see our community of enthusiasts continue to grow and interact.

We are currently working with Robin Spinks and Mary Lilley of Greenfield Development Company to help us find our first physical home for Local Motors cars, customers and community. Though we are months away from making this fantastic announcement, I know that these two professionals are extremely good at what they do. We will continue to cultivate and inspire car lovers to join us and to talk about the type of cars they want to see on the road. Then, as soon as we can, we will be able to bring these cars to life with the participating community of enthusiasts and designers.

Manhattan Motors & Better Place - What is your vision?

Cheers to Better Place!

As we at Local Motors know well, we have the technology to improve the automotive industry. The technology has not been problematic for a long time since much research has been done to utilize renewable energy sources and alternative fuel.

What we lacked was original ideas and infrastructure to support the ideas. Not anymore!

Better Place and Local Motors have one great similarity; both companies challenge common acceptance of old automotive ways. Both acknowledge that an immediate solution will need more than an alternative fuel source; this change will require a new platform.

We applaud Better Place. Better yet, we celebrate the foresight of this new company and seek to press it forward.

To do so, we are hosting the first Local Motors Competition inspired by another company, Better Place. Truth be told, you could design an awesome vehicle for Manhattan to appeal to car enthusiasts without incorporating Better Place infrastructure or a plan for sustainability at all. The key to this competition is bridging the gap between purely sustainable and practical transportation with sustainable, practical, AND enjoyable transportation which happens to be awesomely styled.

For this Manhattan Motors Competition, we will entertain Better Place Principles because we believe in them . We will not forget Local Motors call to remain the most exciting car on the road. Combining these two characteristics, sustainability and exciting design, has always been the plan. This is just one way to do it! The question is, what is your vision?

See you in Manhattan!

In the Studio Shirts ARRIVED!

Shirt Design by David Fearnley


The "In the Studio" shirts have arrived!! Since I could not convince my personal male model to try on the shirts, I did it myself. To be honest, I really want both of these shirts so I enjoyed the opportunity to see how they looked - especially since I'm not allowed to own one!

They were a little wrinkly since I just pulled them out of the box but to my surprise, the sustainable t's were super soft.

David, Ben, you guys are fantastic. These shirts are well done.

Shirt Design by Benedetto Bordone

Cheers to American Apparel for making a quality product, and to apparelbuilder.com for their attention and great work.

As a heads up for future members who will wear these shirts, they are a bit long and slimmer fit - I think this is the trend in most places. I want to see pictures of YOU GUYS sporting these shirts. Wear them out one night and take some photos of you and your friends, then send them to me and/or add them to your LM Profile Pictures.

I'll mail these shirts out tomorrow!

As a reminder, these shirts can not be bought. Those of you who are winners of LM Competitions, and/or are invited to join in on Design Process will receive one of these T's to recognize your accomplishment. This is the precise reason why I should NOT be wearing one - because it is exclusive, these shirts will mean something. I hope you will be proud to wear them!

p.s. Yes, I know these are goofy photos, but the shirts are AWESOME.

Pictures from Adis' Visit

Earlier this week Jay blogged about Adis' visit, and the Community Transition from Talk to Touch. As much as I love Chicago (and I LOVE Chicago), I really wish I could have been in Wareham for this visit! I had the pleasure of speaking to Adis on the phone several times, and each time, I was invigorated. Adis gets it. He understands what we are doing at Local Motors, and he knows that he plays a vital role.

I am not going to re-blog what Jay wrote. Basically, it was great to see Adis - and we would welcome all of you! My reason for mentioning this visit is to share these pictures with you:

Jay & Adis

Mike, Dave & Adis

In the background is the full-scale foam mockup of the Rally Fighter the guys have been working on. I've been waiting to post these pictures since we hadn't had a chance to update the Vehicle Build Process and I didn't want to jump the gun. Dave has begun to update Vehicle Build with this mockup. Check in for details, and see this foam structure built from beginning to end.

The development of the Rally Fighter is well underway!

Also, in other news - we will be announcing the next competition on Monday, September 8th! Hello Big Apple!

Auto Show Season

We enjoyed a beautifully sunny 3 day weekend in the States. Labor Day is the unofficial ending of summer, and beginning of fall. Back to the grind, folks! This is school season, and the beginning of Auto Show Season. The buzz has already begun for the LA Auto Show!

Not only is it Auto Show Season, it is time for us to get out there and meet you all in person. This fall and winter will bring new excitement to Local Motors as Ben, Jay and perhaps a few of the other LM Team Members venture out to meet our Community in the flesh. We will visit San Francisco, LA, Detroit, and maybe even Chicago and DC. Exact dates are still in the works, but we will let you know asap.

Become our friend on Facebook to keep track of upcoming events! Look up "Local Motors" and you will find us.