MICROMOBILITY, 3D PRINTING, AUTONOMY: LOCAL MOTORS HAD IT ALL. WHAT HAPPENED?

EV Channels Review

This Autoline After Hours episode delves into the ambitious rise and fall of Local Motors, a company that pioneered concepts like crowdsourcing, 3D printing, and microfactories years ahead of mainstream adoption. Guest Justin Fishkin, a co-founder, attributes the company's demise to being "too early" for market acceptance of its radical ideas, coupled with mission creep driven by investor demands and a shift in focus from a platform-centric model to exclusively producing the 'Olli' shuttle. While acknowledging the company's revolutionary spirit and the talent it fostered, Fishkin highlights the challenges of securing sufficient capital for platform development and the headwinds faced by shared mobility during the pandemic. The discussion also touches upon the potential for these concepts to succeed today, the future of mobility and manufacturing with Fishkin's new venture 'Future/Of', and the ongoing challenges and opportunities in recycling automotive plastics and the microfactory strategy versus traditional large-scale manufacturing.