X Prize

So, how many of you have heard of this? The X Prize.

Back when I wrote the A-Z series, it was my back up plan for the letter X. Currently, it doesn’t have much relevance to real estate, but one day it might.

The original X Prize was $10,000,000 to be awarded to the first entrant to launch a craft in to space, and then turn around and do it again with the same craft within a short period of time. Another current X Prize is for Genomics.

The X Prize that grabbed my attention is the Automotive X Prize. The basics involve developing a car that is capable of at least 100mpg, can carry 4 people, and emit under a certain amount of pollution… and it has to be marketable to real people. No carbon fiber, $1M concept cars that look like a cross between a VW Bus and a bar of soap. Think about something more like an accord that has some evolved technology and can be sold for under $30k. I’ve even decided how I think it might be possible…

“But, this relates to real estate how?”

I’d love to see an X Prize that involved low cost building designs for developing countries. Of course, I’d like to see this developed in a manner that it could positively impact local economies, providing jobs and profits…

Just a thought… and this isn’t what I would do with the money.