When Local Motors won DARPA’s XC2V private “crowd-sourced” competition about 14 weeks ago, they secured the right to build a prototype that could eventually serve as a next-gen military vehicle for U.S. armed forces. Not a lot of time!
As you can see, however, they delivered. The fruits of their labour are on display above.
Now, while a new kick-ass military vehicle is cool, the true goal of DARPA’s competition was to see how much faster a crowd-sourced project could go from concept to prototype than traditional means.
Turns out the answer was “much faster,” with Local Motors completing their task before schedule (the 14 weeks). Even if they had completed it exactly on deadline the process would have still been about five times faster than a traditional build.
The beast is named FANG, by the way (Fast Adaptable Next-Generation Ground Combat Vehicle) and it could represent a much more privatized future for the U.S. military. [Local Motors via DVICE]