Plug & Drive Self-Driving Car Kit For $999
George “Geohot” Hotz launched his self-driving car startup, Comma.ai, a year ago out of his garage at the “Crypto Castle” in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. A year later, he said he’s ready to start shipping.
At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Hotz announced a self-driving car kit, called Comma One, that he promises will start shipping before the end of the year.
The rectangular, green-colored device will replace the rear-view mirror and will be self installable, Hotz said. While he didn’t share any of the hardware specs at the conference, Hotz said the kit would contain its own camera and hold all the machine learning algorithms to help the car drive itself.
The kit will only work on certain Honda and Acura cars with lane-keeping assistance features. Comma One will take advantage of the radars and cameras built into those vehicles.
Hotz said it will cost $999 for the hardware and another $24 a month for a subscription to the software.
Hotz promises the device could get a driver “from Mountain View to San Francisco without touching anything.” That’s a more than 50 mile trip on an extremely busy stretch of highway. This isn’t fully autonomous driving, but more like “really fancy cruise control.” Hotz said it would be on par with Tesla’s Autopilot feature.
Hotz said release will be limited to the Bay Area at first. ”These will be harder to come by than a pair of Kanye West sneakers,” Hotz quipped on stage. Article published on Forbes
