Comma.ai Goes Open Source with Self Driving Car Kit

Self driving car segment is popularly associated with Google and Apple automated car programs. But most of the people doesn’t known that BMW, Tesla and a number of other firms are working on the segment and each are going through a rapid phase of development to come up with their own version of safe and robust self-driving car within the mid next decade. Comma.ai is a lesser known player in the self-driving companies list but it has done a tremendous research and built a very reliable within a few years of its inception.

Comma.ai has announced that it will be coming up with its own software platform and it has future plans of bringing an associated hardware module which will be made available for free download on Github site. The best thing about this startup is that it will release its software platform and hardware module as an open source entity under the MIT license. This will help in development and engineering of self driving more easier and error free than before both for the enthusiasts and manufacturers alike.

Comma.ai is already works on a selected number of cars

Comma.ai’s developed self-driving platform is currently helps in powering the automation utility to just two cars namely the Acura ILX and Honda Civic. In order to bring the automated driving functionality to these cars this particular self-driving platform has to be supported with the LaneWatch package which is placed in the cars. Comma.ai brings a number of self driving capabilities to the vehicle which includes adaptive cruise control and self steering.

Adaptive cruise control backed with Comma.ai self driving platform allows the car to slow down from any given speed to a slower speed as per the traffic movement ahead while the self-steering allows users to leave the car completely on the auto-pilot kind of mode.

The advantage & disadvantage of self driving platform at a glance

As stated earlier a number of car manufactures, equipment supplier and even well established technology companies are trying their hand at developing their own home-grown self driving cars. The potential of the self driving technology is vast as it will not just bring a drastic fall in the car crashes and ultimate deaths but it will also help in reducing the traffic congestion which has become a chronic disease in mega cities. It does have it won a disadvantage which includes a major and detrimental impact on the jobs along with the economy.

Comma.ai is moving swiftly towards bring self-driving all cars alike

At the inception Cooma.ai offered to develop a self-driving car within $1000 but what it actually meant was that it will help in retrofitting the existing cars with self-driving capability through hardware and software support. On the same lines it is making its self-driving platform in open-source which will help hackers, engineers, communities and manufactures to add new capabilities and extend the application of this platform to a more diverse range of cars regardless of the region and location.