A year ago, industry-wide concern forced Warner Bros. and the MPAA to produce one of the most memorable PSAs of the new millennium. Titled “You Won’t Steal a Car” – and recently revealed to have likely been created with pirated fonts – the ads made the case that purchasing a burnt DVD or torrent file of the grainy Meet the Fockers was, in fact, akin to a B&E heist or Grand Theft Auto. The two 45-second morality plays included interstitial title cards indicating that a presumably honest and law-abiding person would never commit such crimes in the real world. So how do they agree to anonymously create or view digital copies of media from their own homes?
Immediately, the public reacted to the ads with derision, not only at their pearl-clutching silliness, but also at the central premise. As many people will point out in years to come – sure, they’d hotwire a car in their neighbor’s driveway, but they wouldn’t mind downloading it. Once just a meme, this fantasy is now a huge step closer to reality thanks to a recently reported breakthrough in the field of 3D printing.
A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently developed a printer with four separate extruders that output five different materials to produce a fully functioning linear motor in about three hours. Publishing their work in the industry journal Virtual & Physical Prototyping, the team described how by retrofitting a printer with enough extruders to handle the variety of materials needed to create a functioning motor, they shortened the typical production time for such a device and reduced material costs to about $0.50.
In a world where the typical cost of building such a prototype would be comparatively high and turnaround could take weeks to months, the team’s proof-of-concept has the potential to change the manufacturing world. The linear motor they created, which moves in a straight line instead of rotating like a car engine, is primarily used in automation and manufacturing. If factory floors someday are able to print complex replacement parts instead of the will of sluggish global supply chains, it’s difficult to understand the scope of the impact.
While the linear motor is a far cry from the complexity of the V12 engine, the MIT team’s development is undoubtedly an important small step in that direction. We’re obviously still one step away from being able to download and slice 2026RangeRover.stl files, but you might be surprised to learn that there are already hobbyists successfully 3D-printing parts and even entire cars, one piece at a time.
Big Auto may still want to start brainstorming its own PSA while there’s still time.
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