3 ms·

This does not in any shape or form compete in the self-driving cars space; the thing doesn't have a rear camera! This is basically the "rsync as Dropbox" appro

This does not in any shape or form compete in the self-driving cars space; the thing doesn't have a rear camera! This is basically the "rsync as Dropbox" approach to augmenting your car with a hacky version of automatic cruise control, with a bonus lawsuit should you ever be in a crash significant enough to warrant the attention (think paralysis).

mgraczyk 5y ago
If you haven't tried it, I would refrain from making that claim. I used the v1 of this device for ~1 year, and since then driving has never felt the same. It was sooo much less annoying to do regular commutes when the device took control for even 90% of the trip. This was true even though I still paid attention to the road and had hands ready to take the wheel.
- kelnos 5y ago
  Sure, but your experience doesn't really tell us about the overall safety of the system. How many total miles have been driven by people using a Comma system? The front page of their website says "millions", which is several orders of magnitude less than Tesla Autopilot (several billion miles at this point). Given that in the US there is around 1 fatality per 100 million miles driven, I don't think "millions" of miles driven with Comma is anywhere near enough to say anything about its safety record.
birken 5y ago
Comma is far and away the best version of "automatic cruise control" that exists in any consumer car. If you think Comma is hacky then wait until you see Tesla's version, which costs $10k and only works on one brand of car! The stock "automatic cruise control" is most cars is far worse and far more dangerous than Comma, and those companies aren't getting taken down by lawsuits. At the end of the day, the driver is responsible for the operation of the vehicle. Comma is a tool the driver can use, and one that undoubtedly makes driving safer for themselves and other vehicles on the road.
- varelse 5y ago
  Um... Have you driven a Mach E yet? No interest in its upcoming FSD, but the adaptive cruise control and lane assistance is wonderfully conservative and useful.
  - birken 5y ago
    I've only driven my car, but Consumer Reports tested a bunch of cars and rated Comma the best [1]. Maybe another car since then is better, but of course Comma is always getting updated and you just download the new version to your device when it comes out. 1: https://data.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/consumer-reports-active-driving-assistance-systems-november-16-2020.pdf https://data.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/...
    - varelse 5y ago
      After reading a description of the comma device and how it's being used it seems uncannily like how my Mach E drives. But also as both my first EV and my first semi self-driving car, perhaps I have a different set of standards. My TLDR was that the adaptive cruise control and automatic lane keeping extended my daily driving range by several hundred miles by reducing cognitive load significantly. It was the best 900 miles I've ever driven. But watching people nitpick various variants of electric crossover SUVs, I realize I would probably like just about all of them because none of my cars have been anything like that up to now. So I keyed in my other two cars to see if I could put the comma into it and alas I cannot. They are 2013 and 2016 models respectively. And yes the system in the Mach E is brand new: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32896537/fords-driver-assist-system-drivers-hands-free/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32896537/fords-driver-ass...
- PhasmaFelis 5y ago
  > only works on one brand of car! Is that a downside? Anyone who's ever struggled with hardware driver problems knows that the more hardware configurations your software (notionally) supports, the more likely you are to have show-stopping bugs. In a home PC, some reliability is arguably a fair trade-off for versatility. Not in a car.
bobsomers 5y ago
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. This is an accurate, if colorful, assessment. It has all the same safety problems as a Tesla with even worse sensors, less compute, and practically zero real safety V&V work. They cutely dodged NHTSA's regulatory ire by shipping a "dash cam" that happens to run software you can install which makes it semi-autonomous... even though said software is made by the same company that ships the "dash cam". NHTSA isn't stupid, so I'm curious what it will take for this loophole to eventually be properly closed. Sadly, safety is a lot like security. When it's done well, it's invisible, but when it's done poorly...

mgraczyk 5y ago

If you haven't tried it, I would refrain from making that claim. I used the v1 of this device for ~1 year, and since then driving has never felt the same. It was sooo much less annoying to do regular commutes when the device took control for even 90% of the trip. This was true even though I still paid attention to the road and had hands ready to take the wheel.

kelnos 5y ago
Sure, but your experience doesn't really tell us about the overall safety of the system. How many total miles have been driven by people using a Comma system? The front page of their website says "millions", which is several orders of magnitude less than Tesla Autopilot (several billion miles at this point). Given that in the US there is around 1 fatality per 100 million miles driven, I don't think "millions" of miles driven with Comma is anywhere near enough to say anything about its safety record.

birken 5y ago

Comma is far and away the best version of "automatic cruise control" that exists in any consumer car. If you think Comma is hacky then wait until you see Tesla's version, which costs $10k and only works on one brand of car! The stock "automatic cruise control" is most cars is far worse and far more dangerous than Comma, and those companies aren't getting taken down by lawsuits. At the end of the day, the driver is responsible for the operation of the vehicle. Comma is a tool the driver can use, and one that undoubtedly makes driving safer for themselves and other vehicles on the road.

varelse 5y ago
Um... Have you driven a Mach E yet? No interest in its upcoming FSD, but the adaptive cruise control and lane assistance is wonderfully conservative and useful.
- birken 5y ago
  I've only driven my car, but Consumer Reports tested a bunch of cars and rated Comma the best [1]. Maybe another car since then is better, but of course Comma is always getting updated and you just download the new version to your device when it comes out. 1: https://data.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/consumer-reports-active-driving-assistance-systems-november-16-2020.pdf https://data.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/...
  - varelse 5y ago
    After reading a description of the comma device and how it's being used it seems uncannily like how my Mach E drives. But also as both my first EV and my first semi self-driving car, perhaps I have a different set of standards. My TLDR was that the adaptive cruise control and automatic lane keeping extended my daily driving range by several hundred miles by reducing cognitive load significantly. It was the best 900 miles I've ever driven. But watching people nitpick various variants of electric crossover SUVs, I realize I would probably like just about all of them because none of my cars have been anything like that up to now. So I keyed in my other two cars to see if I could put the comma into it and alas I cannot. They are 2013 and 2016 models respectively. And yes the system in the Mach E is brand new: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32896537/fords-driver-assist-system-drivers-hands-free/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32896537/fords-driver-ass...
PhasmaFelis 5y ago
> only works on one brand of car! Is that a downside? Anyone who's ever struggled with hardware driver problems knows that the more hardware configurations your software (notionally) supports, the more likely you are to have show-stopping bugs. In a home PC, some reliability is arguably a fair trade-off for versatility. Not in a car.

bobsomers 5y ago

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. This is an accurate, if colorful, assessment. It has all the same safety problems as a Tesla with even worse sensors, less compute, and practically zero real safety V&V work. They cutely dodged NHTSA's regulatory ire by shipping a "dash cam" that happens to run software you can install which makes it semi-autonomous... even though said software is made by the same company that ships the "dash cam". NHTSA isn't stupid, so I'm curious what it will take for this loophole to eventually be properly closed. Sadly, safety is a lot like security. When it's done well, it's invisible, but when it's done poorly...