Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

electrek.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 498 posts

Re: George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

#41

Post by idlewords »

Analemma_ wrote: post #31
j2bax wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on... Hotz doesn't really represent anyone but George Hotz. He is a very unique individual that was blessed with a very mathematical mind but very little social grace.

Sure, but every individual is part of a pattern, and our outgroup is becoming more convinced that there's one pattern in particular at play here. Take a look at the front page of Hacker News right now : in addition to this story, there's "Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick" and "Uber drivers win employee rights case" (presumably over Uber's fierce opposition). With 30 items on the front…

It's not just outsiders who take this view.

Re: George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

#44

Post by mikeash »

daveloyall wrote: post #34

The commenters on that twitter thread are critical of geohot for "rolling over easily". I don't think we should presume that the guy who defied Sony, AT&T, Apple, and the DCMA is doing any such thing. Maybe he discovered a flaw in the design of comma AI or something.

Then maybe he should have said so. Criticizing him based on his own description of why it's canceled is entirely reasonable. He got a letter from the NHTSA and immediately said he was done because he didn't want to deal with it. He's either rolling over for them or he's lying about his motivations, either way it's not good.

Re: George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

#45

Post by oh_sigh »

hangonhn wrote: post #25

Wow. If he really moves his project to China to take advantage of a lax regulatory environment even though he couldn't pass the scrutiny in the US, he's being very immoral and cavalier about people's lives in China. I don't understand how a startup like Cruise can get past this regulatory hurlde in the US but Hotz can't.

My guess is that there are other problems with the comma one system, and he is using this as an excuse to back out (not so) gracefully from his previous statements.

Re: George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

#46

Post by Analemma_ »

idlewords wrote: post #41
Analemma_ wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but every individual is part of a pattern, and our outgroup is becoming more convinced that there's one pattern in particular at play here. Take a look at the front page of Hacker News right now : in addition to this story, there's "Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick" and "Uber drivers win employee rights case" (presumably over Uber's fierce opposition). With 30 items on the front…

It's not just outsiders who take this view.

I was hoping you'd show up in this thread ;)

It's definitely not just outsiders as you (and I) can attest; I went with that line of argument to try and convey some sense of urgency about the problem. It's easy to dismiss internal dissent about SV libertarian groupthink as not important, but "outsiders" have the potential to bring the party to an end if they collectively get really grumpy about what we're doing. I thought that might be more motivation.

Re: George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

#47

Post by probdist »

tptacek wrote: post #29

Here's what the Special Order demanded: 1. Describe in detail how the comma one is installed in a vehicle and provide a copy of installation instructions for the comma one. 2. Describe in detail the advanced driver assistance features of the comma one, including how those features differ from the existing features of the vehicles in which the comma one is intended to be installed. 3. Describe in detail how a vehicle…

They could have asked for George's middle name and the cost of compliance would be burdensome. It is not the rap but the ride that you can't beat.

Re: George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

#48

Post by singularity2001 »

mikeash wrote: post #39
nibs wrote: post #5

Classic government. Self-driving technology should benchmarked against how good people are at driving (and how often they kill and injure people), as opposed to being proven intrinsically safe like a car part.

The letter they received from the NHTSA is available here: https://electrek.co/2016/10/28/george-hotz-cancels-his-tesla... It looks to me to be fairly mild and entirely reasonable. To immediately respond to this letter with "fuck it, we're not going to make this product anymore" is bizarre, and not the government's fault.

You call an out of the blue threat of $21,000 per day (!) 'fairly mild'?

Re: George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

#49

Post by mikeash »

singularity2001 wrote: post #43

The government threatening him to pay a penalty of $21,000 per day(!) before even selling the product sure didn't inflict affection from his side. [0] https://www.scribd.com/document/329218929/2016-10-27-Special...

They're just asking for information at this point. The penalty is if he doesn't provide that information by the deadline. I'm sure being threatened with such a penalty isn't pleasant, but it's hardly unusual. I mean, just about every little government form I send in has a section that starts out with, "Under penalties of perjury, I declare that...."

Re: George Hotz cancels his Tesla Autopilot-like ‘comma one’

#50

Post by espadrine »

hangonhn wrote: post #25

Wow. If he really moves his project to China to take advantage of a lax regulatory environment even though he couldn't pass the scrutiny in the US, he's being very immoral and cavalier about people's lives in China. I don't understand how a startup like Cruise can get past this regulatory hurlde in the US but Hotz can't.

If that is his intention, it is also risky from a business perspective. China does have laws and regulations, even if they haven't yet set many laws on self-driving facilities. Understanding those, and appealing to the Chinese population, are very difficult business and marketing tasks, much greater than trying to develop a business in a country he knows, in a culture he understands.

Google, Uber, and so many others have struggled and are struggling still.

Post reply on HN