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Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

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21–30 of 114 posts

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#21
For those who haven't seen Openpilot before, or recently:

* George Hotz (not "Hortz") is working on other stuff now [0], and is no longer CEO.

* While "I'm running open-source self-driving software from GitHub" sounds terrifying, the software is very good at what it does, which is very limited (LKAS / ACC / driver monitoring). Browsing test videos on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=openpilot+0.5) is a good way to get an impression for how well it works; the consensus I've found is that it's better and safer than any stock systems except Tesla AP and Super Cruise.

[0] http://pixie.tech

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#22
post #3

One side of me thinks this is really, really cool. The other side is running away as fast as possible. If anything shouldn't be developed by committee, it's something that controls a few thousand pounds hurtling down the highway at 70MPH with at best an observant human watching over it. Here's my reasoning: Mistakes in Django? Bad things happen. Mistakes in the Linux kernel? Potentially really bad things happen. Mist…

How do you think the propriety systems work?

Well, they're often (always? can't say that as I haven't gone all the way into all of them, I suppose) built using actual real-time systems with latency guarantees rather than Python running on off-the-shelf Linux, to start...

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#23
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No Tesla programmers have been arrested for Autopilot-related crashes.

Tesla probably have the paperwork and certs in order when NTSB knocks the door. NHTSA have already shut down comma.ai products before. EDIT: I personally thinks it's a bit to reckless to let the general public use the Autopilot in it's present state. https://comma.ai/shop/products/eon-gold-dashcam-devkit "Retrofit your car with a copilot." "Note: This product is not designed to drive a car. This product is designed t…

NHTSA came knocking and then openpilot was opensourced. It's to be used as a prototyping tool.

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#24
How funny that this pops up just a few hours after I looked into it again.

It's an exciting product. Even if it has no direct use, I feel better being driven around by an open piece of software that I could in theory inspect and change. Closed-source stuff is just a black box expected to do magic. Doesn't feel good.

The story behind the man is quite interesting as well. When I was 9 he was the guy I got the jailbreaks from that would allow me to install cool tweaks and other non-standard software Apple wouldn't allow on my iPod Touch 3G.

Apart from this, I think this rap [https://youtu.be/9iUvuaChDEg] he published when he was sued by Sony for allowing alternative operating systems to be installed onto the PlayStation 3 demonstrates his attitude quite well (admittedly the self driving situation is more complicated, but what a response to a law suit).

You might guess that I'm still a GeoHot fan. While I'm not sure this will be competitive with commercial systems in the future, I'd love it. Having the world's best self driving system be free for everyone to inspect and use in their cars would be a societal gain similar to that of Linux.

Open Pilot will be the only self driving system retrofittable to older cars (by consumers themselves), which is already very cool (it's just unfortunate that none of the cars are old enough for me to consider buying).

I wish them the best of luck (and may they get the tests to a level at which everyone is happy with them).

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#25
I work as a lead autonomous vehicle engineer.

Here's a few thoughts:

* This isn't really open-source. The most important part, the neural network perception pipeline, is closed sourced. Without the training data and the network architectures, the supporting code is not that useful.

* This system is non-deterministic, which is a no-no in critical systems like autonomous vehicle. There's no guarantee that vehicle detection or throttle/brake commands will be executed on a acceptably safe timeline.

* I think the supporting tools like Panda and Giraffe are great for those wanting to get into car hacking.

------------------------------------------------

By the way, if you want to to become an autonomous vehicle engineer I put together a resource guide here: https://becomeautonomous.com

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#26

I work as a lead autonomous vehicle engineer. Here's a few thoughts: * This isn't really open-source. The most important part, the neural network perception pipeline, is closed sourced. Without the training data and the network architectures, the supporting code is not that useful. * This system is non-deterministic, which is a no-no in critical systems like autonomous vehicle. There's no guarantee that vehicle detec…

> The most important part, the neural network perception pipeline, is closed sourced.

Knowing what things are is certainly a part, and it may be the least solved part, but surely there is a lot of value in rolling everything else that goes into autonomous driving into a car-pluggable package. Trivial setup for sensing, fusing, actuating, and thrusting is pretty big for most people even if you don't get to see the more fuzzy stuff.

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#27
post #15

Cool, I'd really like to use this for a small scale toy car. I'd never put it on something that could do more than bruise an ankle.

I have two recommendations for you Duckietown (https://www.duckietown.org) and AWS DeepRacer (https://aws.amazon.com/deepracer).

Hope that helps!

-------

If you want to get more serious about robotics then check out my website https://becomeautonomous.com

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#28

How funny that this pops up just a few hours after I looked into it again. It's an exciting product. Even if it has no direct use, I feel better being driven around by an open piece of software that I could in theory inspect and change. Closed-source stuff is just a black box expected to do magic. Doesn't feel good. The story behind the man is quite interesting as well. When I was 9 he was the guy I got the jailbreak…

"Closed-source stuff is just a black box expected to do magic"

Open Pilot is about as much black box as all the other self driving applications. The interfacing is open source.

The machine learning is closed source. I've looked into the repos and didn't find any sign of the actual hard self driving parts, as it were last time I checked comma.ai.

But sure, you can tune the steering P-controller for your Subaro if you would like too.

https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/blob/devel/selfdrive/ca...

        apply_steer = apply_std_steer_torque_limits(apply_steer, self.apply_steer_last, CS.steer_torque_driver, P)
Or maybe you can patch using "volatile int" for thread concurrency in the machine model inerface (I guess it is that).

https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/blob/devel/selfdrive/vi...

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#29
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No Tesla programmers have been arrested for Autopilot-related crashes.

Tesla makes it extremely clear to its users what the shared responsibility model is for Autopilot features (through warning messages at each Autopilot engagement and in the user's manual for all Tesla vehicles), and has general counsel on staff to reinforce this through legal actions indemnifying their staff. Openpilot is a drastically different model. It is a software breadboard for your own vehicle. For example, th…

It is laughable, because it is probably true. The quality of the systems produced by the named manufacturers is abysmal.

Re: Openpilot – open-source self-driving agent

#30
I worked on Openpilot for around a year. Although many of the "cool" parts are not open source, there are still lots of interesting goodies in there worth checking out.

For example, there is a semi-standalone CAN processing library: https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/tree/devel/selfdrive/ca...

A shitload of hacks and workarounds that make the system work on dozens of cars: https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/tree/devel/selfdrive/ca...

Saving state on devices that arbitrary drop successful file writes when the battery dies.

https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/blob/devel/common/param...

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