Comma AI has two self-driving cars products called Openpilot and Comma two. Comma had about $5 million in annual revenue in 2020. They have 40 million miles of driving data collected from drivers using its inexpensive off-the-shelf electronics. George Hotz is the Founder and President of Comma.ai. They have raised $8.1 million in funding.
The Comma Two is a niche product for enthusiasts. The hardware costs $999 with an additional $200 cable needed. For regulatory and liability reasons, customers have to install the OpenPilot software onto the Comma Two.
Almost all cars after 2016 have electronic power steering. Electronics can be controlled by acceleration and braking.
Comma is open source self-driving system designed to run on a smartphone. Early Comma users are modifying their own cars to take steering inputs from Comma’s smartphone-based software. The data harvested is used to improve the software in much the same way as Tesla. Comma does not use lidar. Comma wants be the low cost Android to Tesla’s Apple.
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Being full open source is potentially an interesting regulatory move, insomuch you are allowed by government agencies to only load approved self driving OS images onto cars. It allows a level of transparency with respect to the FSD neural network models, and allows third party inspection, particularly by both regulatory agencies and the insurance industry. Not using an OS and neural network model version approved by your insurance provider, no coverage. Using an older version means reduced coverage. By default there must be at least one open source model available for free from the government (provides an incentive to harmonize FSD computers/sensor packs, creates an open platform, creates a level playing field)(think OBD2 on steroids). This creates incentives for private/optimized FSD OS and neural network models that can be purchased or subscribed to.
s will comma.ai and/or openpilot* win as #1, or #2 behind Tesla (more likely) and used by many OEM's, #3 niche retrofit option with most OEM's putting huge resources to brute force beat openpilot and comma.ai. *comma.ai or fork
I intend to change the software to ensure I only ever crash into Teslas.
I am honestly surprised nobody mommented on this. I think Comma AI has enormous potential. I also see that at the moment the market is a small niche of enthusiasts. However if one of the major car companies manages to develop a full self-driving system I think that many manufacturers that do not have the resources to develop an in-house solution will develop agreements with Comma AI to either install the system directly on the cars or to make the installation easier.