That petty green box you ’re depend at ? It ’s the invention of a 26 - year - old mavin fry by the name ofGeorge Hotz , who made a name for himself in 2007 when he became the first person to hack the iPhone . It ’s called theComma One , and it makes your car semi - autonomous for just $ 1,000 , plus a $ 24 monthly subscription fee . With a couple of caveats .
Should you bribe one ? Oh good Lord , no . As Tesla comes under intense scrutiny for untimely unleashing Autopilot technology thatdrivers do n’t quite cognise how to handle yet , autonomy you buy in a freaking box is way too much , right smart too soon .
It uses the lane-assist technology your car already has
So , the first caveat : as of right now , Comma One only do work with select Hondas and Acuras that feature lane - keeping assistance . That said , what it does is in reality kinda smart as a whip . It uses a built - in camera , along with the detector and controller already built into the cable car , to form a radar- and camera - base understanding of the border environment , and to maneuver the car as it deems appropriate . Because of that , the monetary value of hardware is relatively downcast , and Comma One can rightly arrogate an offering that function loosely in the same manner as Tesla ’s Autopilot .
It ’s an telling opening salvo by Hotz . But that ’s about all it is .
It’s at odds with Mobileye, one of the key players in the autonomous tech industry
By his own admission ( see above TV ) Hotz does n’t care Mobileye , a hugely important company you ’ve plausibly never get a line of . It ’s the firm that attain all the hardware used by most major manufacturers to develop their ego - ride applied science . It ’s relevant to point out that Hotz was in negotiations with Musk to work on Tesla ’s next - generation robot pilot system of rules around the same time thatMobileye sever its developing partnership with Tesla . The principle for the divorce ? Mobileye think Tesla ’s stand for fastness of progression was n’t keeping with better practices regarding the safe rollout of ego - driving tech .
Musk and Hotz are of like mind here , believing that any autonomous forward motion – however gauche and imperfect it may be – is a net addition for society . promote these product towards a populace that miss the capacitance to amply comprehend what it does , however , simply pay for misuse and at last impact those who would much rather wait for the fully engineered and graceful system that major car manufacturer have been developing for over a decade .
It makes for a potentially reckless experiment on an uneducated consumer
Use of the Comma One , just as with Tesla ’s Autopilot , arrive with a admonition that it ’s not a fully self-directed arrangement , and that the driver should remain aware of his or her surroundings at all times . Just one trouble : the product is being presented as a all hands - spare result , which is a step beyond even Musk’slaissez - fairapproach to Autopilot use – which itself is enough toflood YouTube with examplesof unwitting non - drivers pervert the tech .
Comma One is explicitly planning to follow in Tesla’s Autopilot footsteps
Hotz wants everyone to sleep with that if Tesla is " the Io of ego - driving cars , we want to be Android . " That ’s a nicely - craft five 2d soundbite that express with it no real meaning or even a electropositive connotation . Tesla ’s Autopilot has come under intense examination not onlyfrom other car manufacturer , but the administration , too . Why ? Because the computer software oversteps the intended bound of the hardware on which it operates , boundaries to which that hardware was specifically mastermind . Using the Honda sensors as Comma One does essentially follow that same path .
Further , update products on the fly– products which are relied upon ( however incorrectly ) to cover safety - vital procedure – can be interpreted as a mark of unequal testing , and raise licit honorable concerns about the company ’s treatment of the public as beta testers , and again this is part of the Comma One design .
The bottom line: the technology is still premature
To be clear , Comma One does not play a doomsday and glumness scenario , but it also offers very fiddling benefit and more risk than the company would have you believe . If a driver is texting , for example , or generally exhibit a want of attention to the road , then yes , Comma One is clearly a safer option . Then again , the aforementioned tidy sum of anecdotal evidence on YouTube suggests a very clear shape that reliance on arrangement such as this genuinely encourages inattention – and the Comma One does n’t even require a periodic and symbolic touching of the steerage wheel to continue active .
Will the Comma One give your car an Autopilot - like system for under a grand piano ? If you have the specific machine on which it works , yes . Is it a smart buy ? utterly not .
Want more of the world ’s good Cars coverage delivered straight to your inbox?Click here to sign up for our daily e-mail .
Comma.ai via Techcrunch
TechCrunch/Youtube
