Reducing Time To Market Through Modular Car Design

Car technology evolves slowly compared to computing. Compared to Silicon Valley's rain forest of innovation, Detroit is a relative economic wasteland. Why these differences? Harvard Business School professors Carliss Baldwin and Kim Clark say modularity made the computer industry what it is today. Can making car design and manufacture modular speed innovation and reduce time to market? Can modular organization make the car industry as vibrant and profitable as the computer industry? We will explore whether the principles of open source can help the car industry adapt to Silicon Valley's pace.

Speaker: Edward Durney
Edward Durney is founder and CEO of A Truly Electric Car Company. Originally a computer scientist and a lawyer, he worked in Tokyo and Silicon Valley in a variety of jobs, including 4 years as BEA Systems' general counsel as BEA went from a raw startup with just its 3 founders to almost $1 billion in revenue and 2,000 people. For the past 10 years, he has worked on electric car technology.

As usual, refreshments starting at about 6:30 pm for pre-registrants only. Lecture starting at about 7 pm for anyone who shows up. Please sign in the Hacker Dojo front desk on your way in.

Note that Hacker Dojo is (since January) in a new Mountain View location that is accessible by Light Rail from San Jose or from Mountain View Caltrain.