Apple's genius hacker opens source software for autonomous driving

At the end of October, according to foreign media reports, George Hotz, a well-known American hacker who was known as the "first person to crack the iPhone," gave up an autonomous driving car research and development project he proposed.

The main result of the project is a semi-autonomous driving device called "Comma One" that can enable Honda and some Acura models to have autonomous driving capabilities. Hotz canceled the project because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wrote a letter to his company, Comma.ai, claiming that Comma One "will put the safety of Comma.ai users and other road users at risk."

Although the development of autonomous driving equipment has stopped, George Hotz does not seem to have completely given up on the autonomous driving project. Recently, comma.ai began to change its strategy and no longer focused on autonomous driving hardware equipment. Instead, it plans to start selling autonomous driving software. The company's autonomous driving software is called Open Pilot, and there are also some hardware design and assembly instructions necessary to realize the autonomous driving function. Hotz calls it Comma Neo. All software codes are currently open source on the Github website.

To realize the autonomous driving function, in addition to the open source code of Open Pilot and Comma Neo, an Android device is also needed to run the autonomous driving function system NeOS, and the only machine that meets the requirements is OnePlus 3. Hotz said that the machine is highly open source and the hardware such as the processor and camera have also met the requirements for running the NeOS system.

By open-sourcing the autonomous driving software, Hotz and his company can avoid possible violations of regulations and other issues that may arise from selling products, while also attracting more assembly users and obtaining sufficient driving data. At some point in the future, when the stability and security of the software system have been proven, it would be a good choice to commercialize the autonomous driving software system.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.