Even with the very modest hardware of the Comma 2, it effectively takes all the stress out of highway / stay-in-lane driving. In my Audi A3, the car's ACC handles the accelerator and brakes, and openpilot handles the steering. It made the trip a whole lot more relaxing. It was also just a whole lot of fun to set up and tinker with, the community is great!
I haven't been able to observe anything close to the same quality of assistance system in any other car. Autopilot in a Model Y I drove just a few weeks ago felt plain erratic compared to openpilot, and the way it disengages completely when you make even just a small correction is really annoying. Audi's latest assistance systems silently give up as soon as the lane lines aren't 100% clear or things get a little too curvy.
If they can effectively make use of the additional camera data the Comma 3 offers in future openpilot releases, this will be well worth the price tag.
Wait, so Autopilot disengages if you don’t apply enough torque to the steering wheel and disengages if you apply too much torque to the steering wheel? That doesn’t sound like an enjoyable autonomous driving experience.
This is fundamentally where Comma and Tesla differ in approach. Comma's goal is to build the best possible level 2 system that makes driving relaxed and comfortable, and delivering good intermediates in the process. Tesla's goal is to have full self-driving, and any releases on the road to FSD are going to be a compromise.
The nice thing is that a Tesla is always very clearly “under the control of Autopilot” or “under human control”. The downside is that it can be a bit frustrating figuring out how to convince Autopilot that you’re still paying attention (adjusting the the volume/cruise control, or briefly depressing the right stick is a lot less finicky than the torque sensor but you eventually get used to what the torque sensor wants.)
Maybe with later software releases if it improves beyond 'the same as propilot but better at lane following'.
A no frills, technology-first company that is uninterested in speculating their value.
I would bet any day on a company that doesn’t thrive by shilling, with conviction to win and sheer skills turned up to 11.
That’s the kind of folks that push civilization forward
Highly recommend - Masters of Doom audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Masters-of-Doom-David-Kushner-audiobo...
Tesla overstates their capabilities and is more interested in keeping their stock price high than in doing what is best for consumers.
I find this attitude towards Musk so, so odd. Where are you getting your info?
He was coding PC games as a teen, wrote the code for zip2, was the cto at x.com, and taught himself rocket science from textbooks (as confirmed by other rocket scientists). If that’s a “pseudo nerd”, who qualifies as a “real nerd”?
If you're competent enough to get Comma running, you're probably technical enough (and invested enough!) to read the instructions and understand the operational limits of the system.
To be fair, it was probably a bad recruiter, not George's fault, but that's now the memory that comes to mind whenever I heard comma.ai or George Hotz mentioned. Be warned, founders.
I have had a Comma 2 for a while and the Discord has soured me to the company a bit. Lets leave it at that.
I'm just glad there's some competition that's not tied to the car manufacturers. I can't trust modern cars to have an 2014 iPad quality touch screen, I have no faith in their ability to deliver self-driving.
https://mleverything.substack.com/p/commaai-flying-cars-and-...
This recent consumer report on comma.ai on the 'Overall Ratings Results' (page 6) looks very promising. [0]
EDIT: Care to elaborate as to what is the matter my comment about this hardware startup? Is what I just said about them all false?
[0] https://data.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/...
So I went to their website first, to find out - and I think I still don't know. Doesn't describe the product on either the top page, nor the FAQ. Looks like a GPS/Nav device with AR features - but surely that's not worth more than two grand?
I have absolutely no idea if this is a good product or not (hell, I don't even need to drive where I live), but at least their website should tell me what is the selling point.
> openpilot is open source software built to improve upon the existing driver assistance in most new cars on the road today. Tesla Autopilot like functionality for your Toyota, Honda, and other top brands.
> While engaged, openpilot includes camera based driver monitoring that works both day and night to alert the driver when their eyes are not on the road ahead.
It's basically an open-source (software) version of Tesla Autopilot and the Comma is their hardware they're selling that's already set up and running the OSS.
Their meta description is better, but still not great.
"Make driving chill. Upgrade your car with a comma three. comma is building the Android for cars. We have an open source driver assistance system that runs on most modern cars."
It's essentially an aftermarket version of the Tesla Autopilot system.
But I think Geohot should not try to mimic some of the silicon valley tropes.
The communication is OK but sometimes borderline cringy…
Recommended trying out authenticity sometime, if you can manage negative emotions around fear/vulnerability.
Then you'll more likely recognize it in others.
As an aside, does anyone else get richard feynman vibes from the way geohot speaks?
I've definitely noticed it as well. It's that very specific northeastern accent combined with his sheer enthusiasm for everything.
C3 only features in future includes navigation like you pointed out and possibly stopping at red lights and stop signs. They might try to get redlights/stop sings on c2 but its unclear if they would able either because of camera fov or processing power.
lane changes without user confirmation might be possible on certain cars with blind spot monitoring but definitely not on cars without it. For confident lane changes you not only need to know if there is car in blind spot, but also speed of oncoming cars. This isnt possible without side radars or cams. So even the navigation part when it comes out will require user confirmation
The beginning of the video complete with awkward nerd dancing in a dayglo hoodie is also pitch-perfect Silicon Valley.
context: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ginapace/2019/11/29/diageo-laun...
I'm still on an EON from 2018 so I'll need the new harness, which makes it $2400 for the base model. Really hard to justify the price of a loaded Macbook until they have navigation integrated with lane change and highway exits.
I'm honestly glad that they went all in and finally did a custom piece of hardware, but I think they could have cut $500 on the price by using an LCD screen and sold way more units.
$2200 plus $24 a month is a little steep.
