Comma.ai's George Hotz at the introduction of the Comma One: an aftermarket device giving cars semi-autonomous capability for $999. Photo credit: TechCrunch.
Less than a month after deciding that dealing with standard government protocol was more than he could bear, Comma.ai founder George Hotz has had a rethink – and found way around the interference he so reviled for his Comma One semi-autonomous system.
He announced on the Comma.ai website he open sourced the software code and robotics research platform for the driver-assistance system. By doing so, he can’t really make a profit off the program, but it does make it immune to involvement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Anyone looking to get in on the ground floor of the next stage of the code can get it for free through GitHub.
“Currently it performs the functions of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS) for Hondas and Acuras. It’s about on par with Tesla Autopilot at launch, and better than all other manufacturers,” the website says.
“The openpilot codebase has been written to be concise and enable rapid prototyping. We look forward to your contributions – improving real vehicle automation has never been easier.”
(Comma One maker pulls semi-autonomous driving system. Click Herefor the story.)
The Comma One unit makes selected vehicles semi-autonomous and can be installed by the car's owner. Photo credit: TechCrunch.
The site also notes that the program has been used on a 2016 Honda Civic Touring Edition and a 2016 Acura ILX equipped with AcuraWatch Plus. Comma.ai compiled about seven hours of highway driving into a downloadable dataset.
Additionally, the group believes it should be easy to adapt the system to the Honda CR-V Touring.
“The brake message is the same. Steering has a slightly different message with a different message id,” the site notes, adding, “Sniff CAN while using LKAS to find it. The Honda Accord uses different signalling for the steering and probably requires new hardware. Adding other manufacturers besides Honda/Acura is doable but will be more of an undertaking.”
Above all else, Hotz warns that it is “alpha quality software for research purposes only.” It is safe to assume that it will need and benefit from additional testing that will come with being made available for free to the public.
(Start up company unveils $999 aftermarket self-driving system. Click Here for more.)
The move comes a little more than a month after an angry Hotz mothballed the system saying “would much rather spend my life building amazing tech than dealing with regulators and lawyers.” This was in response to a query letter from NHTSA about the system.
In its letter, NHTSA asked several difficult questions, including:
- Describe how it is installed.
- Describe the advanced driver assistance options in the system.
- How does it work?
- What vehicles is it compatible with?
- What kind of weather and road conditions does it operate in?
- What emergency and safety features does it have?
They had many more questions about Comma One. The agency asked him to provide all of the answers to their query by Nov. 10 or he could be subject to a fine of $21,000 a day. To be clear, NHTSA didn’t actually tell Hotz not to sell the device, it just warned him that it would be a bad idea.
“We are concerned that your product would put the safety of your customers and other road users at risk,” said Paul Hemmersbaugh, NHTSA’s chief counsel, in the letter.
“We strongly recommend you to delay selling or deploying your product on public roadways unless and until you can ensure it is safe.”
(To see more about Delphi’s partnership with Intel, Click Here.)
Comma.ai also received a cease-and-desist letter from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles, but Hotz argued that his technology did not fall under the state’s permitting requirements because it did not enable the cars to become fully autonomous, according to Reuters.