We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot

Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by woeirua on Friday October 16, 2020 @12:21PM (#24802301)

It's neat, and a good application of the technology, but honestly I don't see this taking off because the gap between the tech and execution is closing quickly. Comma was really far ahead of everyone 5 years ago. But... we have gone from a situation where the Level 2 systems available in most new cars went from an impractical gimmick, to very useful and comparable to this in just a few years. New Toyota's (MY 2020) are pretty comparable to this at no extra cost. It's really hard to see why you would buy this system for $1100 if you can just buy a new car and get this all for free, plus a bunch of additional safety features that OpenPilot obviously can't include: backup sensors, blind spot monitors, etc.

I don't think manufacturers will outsource the development of their ADAS systems to Comma (or anyone else for that matter) because they view it as a potential short-term differentiator. The existing differentiators are collapsing quickly: reliability is no longer a major concern for EVs, infotainment is lost cause (Carplay and Android Auto won decisively). Aside from ADAS, we're looking at a scenario where in 10 years the only reason to buy from company X vs company Y might be price.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by ProjectBarks on Friday October 16, 2020 @12:32PM (#24802422)

I'm glad you are happy with your new Toyota but I think you are giving too much confidence in it's ability. Look at this evaluation between OpenPilot and Toyota TSS 2.0 https://youtu.be/z5-inxH92wM

Also free to checkout navigating SF with OpenPilot https://youtu.be/0TpMMoQ7GGg (30 min). I highly doubt you would find similar results with a Toyota TSS 2.0 system. Nevertheless, I will let the contents of the videos speak for themselves.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by woeirua on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:26PM (#24802984)

I have a Subaru with Eyesight, not a Toyota. But my point was more so that one of the most popular car manufacturers is giving away a system that is probably 70% as good as OpenPilot.

Those videos didn't really change my mind. I'm not convinced at all that it's really that much better on the highway. It's definitely better for non-highway driving, but it also had a few disengagements that he had to intervene for.

Look, if it was $1000 for Level 5 autonomy I would be the first in line to purchase it. But it's clearly not anywhere close to that yet.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by shiftpgdn on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:32PM (#24803028)

I have a 2019 Subaru with Eyesight. The system isn't half as good as you think it is. The comma system is seriously so far ahead in regards to LKAS (lane centering, cornering, etc) than Subaru's eyesight system.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by RandallBrown on Friday October 16, 2020 @04:11PM (#24804571)

They never said Subaru's system was as good as Comma's. They were talking about Toyota's.

It was a bit confusing because they don't own a Toyota, but they do own a Subaru.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by Cytobit on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:57PM (#24803283)

> New Toyota's (MY 2020)

> I have a Subaru with Eyesight, not a Toyota.

I'm guessing MY = Model Year?

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by p1esk on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:19PM (#24802913)

I did buy a new car a few months ago, and the best possible driver assist features were a priority for me. I bought Chrysler Pacifica minivan with their "advanced" driver assist package. It's just an adaptive cruise control plus warnings when I drift off out of a clearly marked lane. It does not offer a lane keeping ability.

That's a $50k 2020 model with all premium features added. I haven't tried Comma, but from what I can see it can actually drive itself in the most routine situation - staying in a lane on a freeway. My Pacifica can't do that, even though it has 8 cameras and a radar.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by woeirua on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:31PM (#24803013)

This is a legitimate criticism. I can't for the life of me, figure out why manufacturers are still artificially segmenting their products with software. Some cars have had fairly capable lane tracing since the 2019 MY, and others still don't for the 2021 MY.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by p1esk on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:38PM (#24803080)

However, now that I have the adaptive cruise control, I get anxious that I might get into an accident when I think it's enabled while it isn't. Another concern is that it won't be able to apply braking hard enough when a collision is imminent - in such situation it flashes a red warning on the display and sounds an alarm prompting me to brake, but because I haven't been actively adjusting speed with my foot, it might increase my reaction time.

So perhaps having more of those "half way there" self driving features could lead to more of such anxiety, I'm not sure. And I don't know who I would trust more, a car manufacturer, or someone like Comma AI, with my safety. Leaning towards car manufacturers to be honest.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by bitbyt3r on Friday October 16, 2020 @11:03PM (#24807139)

At least personally (as someone driving openpilot pretty regularly) I'm a lot happier to trust openpilot than the stock system in my car since openpilot watches the driver and nags you (and eventually disengages) if you don't pay attention to the road. With the stock system I have to trust myself more.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by woeirua on Friday October 16, 2020 @07:40PM (#24806083)

At least with manufacturers you know who to sue if something goes wrong. I'm pretty sure that Comma has set this all up to shed as much liability as possible since they make you flash the unit with the right software.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by mitchellgoffpc on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:55PM (#24803251)

Yeah, the stock driver assists in most cars still need a LOT of work. I drove from San Diego to LA last weekend with a comma, and openpilot handled the entire trip without a single disengagement until I got off the highway. I’d be really impressed to see a stock LKA manage the same (although I’ve heard great things about super cruise!)

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by mellosouls on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:06PM (#24802786)

It's really hard to see why you would buy this system for $1100 if you can just buy a new car and get this all for free

A key phrase here is "just buy a new car". You might be able to afford that but most can't.

I don't know what Comma AI's market strategy is but I would imagine there is a huge potential aftermarket for gizmos like this in capable older motors, with that growing as time moves on and the enabling technology takes hold.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by shiftpgdn on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:40PM (#24803110)

The only manufacturer who is doing better than Comma is Tesla. Every single manufacturer (including Audi and Cadillac) are years behind Comma in terms of performance.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by woeirua on Friday October 16, 2020 @11:41PM (#24807308)

Is that true though? I know that Hyundai at least has demonstrated a true level 4 system in Korea. It hasn't made its way to any production vehicles yet, but I suspect that's partially because the regulatory regime is still up in the air. Part of the real risk with releasing something right now is that you'll end up with a system that is not compliant with whatever the regulations eventually require.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by matz1 on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:48PM (#24803186)

Then why don't manufacturer just use openpilot ? afaik its free and the code is in the github.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by omgwtfbyobbq on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:59PM (#24803319)

Liability maybe? The same reason why everything except for TACC with Tesla is considered beta and you have to consent to always be ready to intervene to use it.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by xiphias2 on Friday October 16, 2020 @04:02PM (#24804485)

I guess the trained models themselves are not free,

But George is selling it fir the same price to them as well, they just don’t want to rely on him.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by woeirua on Friday October 16, 2020 @01:34PM (#24803051)

I'm not sure about that. You have to have a relatively recent vehicle for this to work, because steer-by-wire only became common place in the last few years as manufacturers started adding ADAS systems. This wont work on any car with hydraulic steering, which rules out a lot of cars.

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Re:We Tested Comma AI's OpenPilot by btian on Friday October 16, 2020 @03:13PM (#24804014)

The average car in the US is 11 years old.

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