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This seems mind bogglingly dangerous. At least with commercial self-driving vehicles, there is a responsible legal entity (the car manufacturer). The thought of

This seems mind bogglingly dangerous. At least with commercial self-driving vehicles, there is a responsible legal entity (the car manufacturer). The thought of thousands of amateurs and enthusiasts releasing their hacked self-driving cars on the public roads is terrifying. The disclaimer "YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPLYING WITH LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS" is nice, but I can't that stopping the mindset of "I've just tweaked the algorithm a bit; let's see how it goes".

mayniac 7y ago
The video[1] says (verbatim): >OpenPilot allows you to be driving hands free and feet free for long periods of time without intervention. Holy fucking shit no. This is completely reckless. If they want their code to be used for research purposes, then set up a site with contact information which researches can use to get a copy of the source code. Having YouTube videos saying "buy this hardware, hook it up to your car and now it's self-driving" (yes they say self-driving in the description) is in no way responsible. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICOIin4p70w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICOIin4p70w
stale2002 7y ago
There is nothing illegal about modifying your own car. People have been doing so since cars were invented. "Amateur" car modifications are already very wide spread.
- mwfunk 7y ago
  Sure there is, depending on what you’re doing and where you live. There’s all sorts of things you could do that would make a vehicle no longer street legal and/or a danger to yourself and others. And I would hope people would take the latter very seriously, even if what they’re doing isn’t illegal.
  - stale2002 7y ago
    And nothing described here makes a vehicle no longer street legal. This stuff is well within the realm of perfectly legal car modifications.
    - Piskvorrr 7y ago
      Is it? IDK, IANAL.
- Bendingo 7y ago
  Yes, I appreciate that. Although it's worth mentioning that some modifications (such as removing seat belts or tail-lights) would render the car un-roadworthy and are effectively illegal. My concern is less with legality and more with lethality.
jerkstate 7y ago
> At least with commercial self-driving vehicles, there is a responsible legal entity (the car manufacturer). That’s not correct, the responsible legal entity in self-driving cases is likely to be the “backup” driver. For example, Uber was not found criminally liable for the Arizona accident a couple years back that killed a woman, but the driver could face charges of vehicular manslaughter: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2019/03/06/519721.htm https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2019/03/06/519721... Uber has settled the civil case out of court with the woman’s family on the driver’s behalf, there is nothing they can do for the criminal case (besides provide representation for the driver)
dsl 7y ago
Some forward thinking car manufacturers are already trying to get ahead of this. My new Jeep for example has a physical box upstream from the ODB2 port that acts as a firewall blocking all non-read commands while in motion. (I of course disassembled my dash and installed a bypass so I could permanently disable the auto off at stop lights)

mayniac 7y ago

The video[1] says (verbatim): >OpenPilot allows you to be driving hands free and feet free for long periods of time without intervention. Holy fucking shit no. This is completely reckless. If they want their code to be used for research purposes, then set up a site with contact information which researches can use to get a copy of the source code. Having YouTube videos saying "buy this hardware, hook it up to your car and now it's self-driving" (yes they say self-driving in the description) is in no way responsible. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICOIin4p70w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICOIin4p70w

stale2002 7y ago

There is nothing illegal about modifying your own car. People have been doing so since cars were invented. "Amateur" car modifications are already very wide spread.

mwfunk 7y ago
Sure there is, depending on what you’re doing and where you live. There’s all sorts of things you could do that would make a vehicle no longer street legal and/or a danger to yourself and others. And I would hope people would take the latter very seriously, even if what they’re doing isn’t illegal.
- stale2002 7y ago
  And nothing described here makes a vehicle no longer street legal. This stuff is well within the realm of perfectly legal car modifications.
  - Piskvorrr 7y ago
    Is it? IDK, IANAL.
Bendingo 7y ago
Yes, I appreciate that. Although it's worth mentioning that some modifications (such as removing seat belts or tail-lights) would render the car un-roadworthy and are effectively illegal. My concern is less with legality and more with lethality.

jerkstate 7y ago

> At least with commercial self-driving vehicles, there is a responsible legal entity (the car manufacturer). That’s not correct, the responsible legal entity in self-driving cases is likely to be the “backup” driver. For example, Uber was not found criminally liable for the Arizona accident a couple years back that killed a woman, but the driver could face charges of vehicular manslaughter: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2019/03/06/519721.htm https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2019/03/06/519721... Uber has settled the civil case out of court with the woman’s family on the driver’s behalf, there is nothing they can do for the criminal case (besides provide representation for the driver)

dsl 7y ago

Some forward thinking car manufacturers are already trying to get ahead of this. My new Jeep for example has a physical box upstream from the ODB2 port that acts as a firewall blocking all non-read commands while in motion. (I of course disassembled my dash and installed a bypass so I could permanently disable the auto off at stop lights)