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Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

techcrunch.com

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Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#141

Post by zeep »

boardwaalk wrote: post #128
zeep wrote: post #127

Can't you see most of Panda's information with a $6 bluetooth OBDII adapter? (something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Mini-OBD2-OBDII-V2-1-Android-B... )

I have one of those; as far as I could tell they're crappy non-compliant Chinese knockoffs of real ELM327 chips. I wasn't able to get much of anything good or interesting out of it and had to get a Beaglebone with CAN bus cape to get any farther (other problems with that but that's separate). Hotz confirms if you read the comments on the article.

I don't see any comments on the article... I even tried a plain browser without addons.

Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#142

Post by id_rsa »

I've been following Comma.ai since I read the Bloomberg article about George hacking a self-driving car in his garage. While I have read the criticism on HN and think it is reasonable, I must admit I'm rooting for George and his team. I'm happy to see they launched this product and are continuing to make progress after the NHTSA incident. I'm looking forward to testing their tech myself.

Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#143

Post by [deleted] »

ktta wrote: post #136
oh_sigh wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cruise sold for >$1B. If he thought his company was better off than that, it is supremely irrational to not put up with the pain of the NHTSA. Hell, just hire a lawyer to do everything and you don't even need to think about it. No, from my guess, Hotz copped out when he realized that his prototype, while fun, was no where near production ready and would be completely illegal to ship to any customers.

This is my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. Hotz never seemed like the guy who would do things similar to what Cruise did. Vogt had already sold two startups prior to Cruise, and he was well versed in the tactics of the startup world. Have great articles put out, polished PR touches, the whole works. OTOH, Hotz had this 'Hacker' air to whatever he does. From the iPhone, to PlayStation, to even hacki…

[deleted]

Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#144

Post by Devthrowaway80 »

BenjiWiebe wrote: post #138
Devthrowaway80 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you're interested in such things, but I've written a Python data acquisition framework (and a shitty GUI for my RaspPi) that works with those cheapo $10 dongles that I'll be releasing under the MIT license as soon as I can be bothered. Main reason I haven't released it yet is that the connection management, while quite resilient, is so hackish that I am bit embarrassed by it.

Are you the author of pyobd-pi?

Nope! Was unaware of the project before you mentioned it. Looks like it might have similar goals.

Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#145

Post by petra »

Animats wrote: post #85

I saw a new player in self-driving yesterday - a blue Peterbilt truck equipped with many cameras and some of the puck-sized Velodyne laser scanners. Nevada license AU 0030. They were driving on US 101 southbound from Menlo Park to Mountain View, where they exited the freeway and got back on, northbound. They were bobtailing; no trailer. In that location, I'd first though it was one of Google's vehicles But why the Ne…

>> Waymo and Volvo are building systems that can handle unexpected trouble.

How ? What's different in the tech they are building ?

Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#146

Post by meh2frdf »

palmerit wrote: post #33
jawns wrote: post #15

I experimented with OBD-II devices for a while, paired with a phone app like Torque, and I found that the lower-level information (e.g. data about any particular air sensor) just wasn't interesting or useful to me. And other useful info (e.g. speed) I can get from my dash or other sources. Where these devices come in extremely handy, however, is by allowing you to look up the opaque fault codes that your car's comput…

if all you care about is rpm's and high level stuff, I absolutely agree. a $10 bluetooth dongle is more the sufficient. However, data about any particular sensor becomes significantly more intersting if you look at the bigger picture comma.ai is presenting. with their openpilot platform (ie, the actual self driving code/product) it needs to know what those sensors are reporting. ie, is the radar reporting an object i…

Hmmm not seen many cars with radar?

Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#147

Post by Animats »

petra wrote: post #145
Animats wrote: post #85

I saw a new player in self-driving yesterday - a blue Peterbilt truck equipped with many cameras and some of the puck-sized Velodyne laser scanners. Nevada license AU 0030. They were driving on US 101 southbound from Menlo Park to Mountain View, where they exited the freeway and got back on, northbound. They were bobtailing; no trailer. In that location, I'd first though it was one of Google's vehicles But why the Ne…

>> Waymo and Volvo are building systems that can handle unexpected trouble. How ? What's different in the tech they are building ?

Watch Chris Urmson's self-driving car talk at SXSW 2016.[1] Especially the part where the Google car encounters someone in a powered wheelchair chasing a duck with a broom. Google can handle that.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj-rK8V-rik

Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#148

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

tinco wrote: post #52
frebord wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a TWIST episode with this guy on it, and he comes of as a massively arrogant prick. The dude who created the first iPhone jailbreak in his teens and got famous at it.

He did a lot more than just jailbreak an old iPhone. The dude's good, who cares if he's arrogant? There's hundreds of big corporations manipulating media for financial gains. Are you gonna hate this guy just because he has a face and a personal reputation? Or are you going to watch with bemused interest as he successfully scales the obstacles and actually puts some nice products out there.

Many geniuses, especially who did great things while still a child, grow up to be arrogant and immature, like Mozart. Not surprising at all.

Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda

#149

Post by unityByFreedom »

Animats wrote: post #147
petra wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Waymo and Volvo are building systems that can handle unexpected trouble. How ? What's different in the tech they are building ?

Watch Chris Urmson's self-driving car talk at SXSW 2016.[1] Especially the part where the Google car encounters someone in a powered wheelchair chasing a duck with a broom. Google can handle that. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj-rK8V-rik

You know you can link to a specific time in a YouTube video right? Pretty hard to find that 20 second section in a 1 hour video ;-). It is a good drawand worth watching that part first, in my opinion
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