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Posted on 09/30/2026 5:26:17 AM PDT by Red Badger
"I do not think we should be letting people run any software they want on their self-driving car."
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The software that powers self-driving cars is no longer the domain of proprietary systems built by billion-dollar companies.
Open source assisted driving systems like Comma AI’s Openpilot have made it possible for anyone tech savvy enough to turn their set of wheels into a self-driving experiment. If you have $1,000 to spare and possess a willingness to serve as a lab rat in pursuit of automotive automation, you can buy a kit from Comma to retrofit your grocery getter with autonomous-driving ready sensors and cameras.
With all the attention that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system and Waymo’s robotaxis get, these DIY options have largely flown under the radar. We may have recently gotten a taste, however, of what the reaction to this aftermarket tech going mainstream might look like.
Over the weekend, a man going by Mike LaBarbera on X posted a video of his Tesla Model Y driving itself using Comma Four, the latest version of Comma AI’s self-driving hardware.
“My FSD subscription ended last January, and this isn’t Tesla Autopilot,” LaBarbera said. With this open source alternative, he boasted, he was “no longer renting a closed system.”
Actually, LaBarbera clarified, what was running the car in the video is “Sunnypilot,” an Openpilot fork — someone else’s custom version of the software, essentially.
While a compelling testament to how far self-driving tech has come along, the video has also alarmed some observers with how easy it apparently is to install custom tech to control your car.
“I do not think we should be letting people run any software they want on their self-driving car,” said Cairo Smith, a writer, in a post that attracted more likes than the original. “It is not Skyrim for Linux. You do not get mods on the freeway.”
Interestingly, some of the most scathing critiques came from apparent proponents of mainstream self-driving efforts. One viral hot take fumed at the possibility of getting into a fatal accident because of choosing to drive “an opensource repo with 3,000 stars instead of just buying the actually good system” on a car that was originally built to support self-driving, like a Tesla.
Another called it a “joke.”
“Imagine getting home with your family, and this guy crashes into you because of some vibe coded PR in a GitHub repo with 2k stars,” the user wrote.
The software has also gotten the attention of federal regulators. Last week, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration opened an investigation into Comma AI after five crashes involving cars that were running Openpilot. In each of the crashes, the vehicles slammed into slow-moving or stopped vehicles in their lanes. Eleven people have been injured across these incidents, and three have died.
Per Electrek’s coverage, the investigation covers 30,000 Comma hardware kits, including Comma Four. One area that the agency is zeroing in on is Comma AI’s marketing, which promises “hands free driving for the car you already have,” despite its fine print stating the cars require constant supervision.
It’s a problem that becomes yet more thorny when you consider that many Comma users may not be using it out of the box, but installing modded versions of the software. Your head starts to spin at all the subtle ways that these mods affect a car’s safety, all without the ostensible accountability you get from a system being built at a large, commercial entity like Tesla.
And that’s without getting into how the rise of vibe coding means that it’s also not a remote possibility that someone inexperienced will use an AI model to customize Openpilot to their liking. Barring major regulatory intervention, we may have to get used to sharing more of the road with people’s homemade robot chauffeurs.
More on self-driving vehicles: Scientists Download Frontier AI Model Into Self-Driving Car Let It Loose
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Ping!...........
I’m installing it on my motorcycle so I can catch up on my reading while traveling.
I have see people SLEEPING on their way to work!...................
It's dangerous enough out on the road, without some driver turning over control to a computer that may or may not be up to the task - and the computer itself is at the mercy of ALL the subsystems (sensors) it relies on. Failure of any one could result in innocent deaths.
It seems to me that we're in a dangerous zone between "normal" manual control of vehicles and fully automated machines that are not fully cooked, where failures have huge impacts.
If and when "flying cars" become prevalent, and people who have no idea how to fly get behind the wheel and push the "automatic" button, these dangers will only increase.
21st Century version of “chop and channel, add chrome wherever possible, and add pinstripe decals”. I wonder who the 21st Century version of the Beach Boys will be.
How does this not void your car insurance coverage?!
fully automated cars are significantly safer than real drivers already.
Are they perfect? no, but they already exceed the performance of a human in terms of safety.
Intersections for instance are where most accidents occur. And a fully automated car can look every direction at the same time. Something a human can never do.
Per AI, multiple sources so I eobt list them all, just the conclusion...
“Standard personal auto insurance policies apply to vehicles with aftermarket or DIY self-driving modules, but coverage may be complicated or denied if modifications are unapproved.”
It probably does, but people will be people.........
Pray you’re never in an MVA caused by a driver who is under or uninsured.
And people wonder why their car insurance rates are so high.
We have been.....................
interesting question, but any human driver will (in the moment) always try to save themselves, and a driverless car should do the same.
So if an 18-wheeler swerves towards you... even if a group of people are on the sidewalk you are going to naturally swerve away from the oncoming 18-wheeler, even if it means hitting the group of people.
Meatbags rely on a lot of 'subsystems' too. Easy to find articles of someone having a heart attack or seizure behind the wheel.
In the end the data will speak, and it's already showing us (with millions of miles driven) that automated vehciles are less likely to be in accidents than those piloted by easily distracted meatbags.
Our grandkids will marvel at the fact we tolerated 10s of thousands of deaths, and millions of injuries, every single year just trying to get around.
Don’t forget to Split Lane also! 😂
That’s what I’m after. I’ll strap in good so I don’t doze off and fall out in traffic.
Then you know what I’m talking about.
We’ve been in 2 MVAs.
Neither were our fault, the drivers who caused each were carrying excellent coverage.
Our rates did not go up after either accident, I suspect because our insurer was able to get it back from the others.
Something else to think about...
My bet is that most of the people attempting the DIY thing are not geeky gearheads.
They are hoping to to be able to get in the car impaired, drink and or drug while driving, want to engage in activities that are not allowed while driving.
Trusting those people with a DIY self-driving install...
What could go wrong.
For once I can see a role for both the government and insurance companies in cracking down on this.
Factory/dealer/authorized service center installs only.
And the insurance coverage should be updated to include the mod.
That doesn't work in Florida. You are still DUI even if the car isn't.............
My wife and I were recently on a vacation and we drove past a moving Tesla with the driver sleeping on his left side and the chair fully reclined and eyes closed. His car then slowly and gently pulled up to his lane and stopped for the same red light we were also at.
The gut never opened his eyes and the car behaved slowly, seemingly to make sure its driver would not wake.
It was bizarre. I do believe anyone letting their car self-drive is still the actual driver legally responsible. In other words, you can’t ever blame the software or car for you taking your eyes or hands away from the responsibility.
Even a train conductor or a boat captain is responsible for their vehicle, as are pilots with aircraft.
If auto-mode does something wrong, that is still on you.
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