I remember George Hotz stating in an interview a year ago that he was going to be a billionaire by the end of 2016. He has quite the ego, there's tons of OBD-II adapters that have been around for a while and many successful Kickstarter campaigns launching better OBD-II adapters.
Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
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Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#32Isn't ODB-II just doesn't have anything useful for self-driving? What's is "fragile" part of ODB-II? How does this yet another dongle solve "fragile" part? Isn't it just arduino-like board and ODB-II shield?
Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#33I 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 in front of you?
panda+cabana allows joe user to identify (and report back to the project) what they are seeing on the CAN bus.. so it can be catalogged and added to the database for all the thousands of different vehicle makes/models on the road.
Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#34I am not much into this, but I believe that to be really useful the OBD-II PIDs (generic):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II_PIDs
should be integrated with the ones by the given manufacturer on the specific model, and AFAIK all the money is in the software that can read those non-standard PID's.
And this is border-line (or downright just over the border) with hacking and/or reverse engineering the manufacturer's own software.
Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#35OK, so now there is a "fitbit for car". Yesterday it was "Uber for Garbage". Service X (where X is an existing hit) for Area Y is getting popular.
I am starting the Herbalife for Groceries. Would you like to signup as an independent distributor in my downline?
Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#36If you want some of the features of the Panda interface (not the cloud connected dashcam) it seems like Automatic [1] seems to do the job. Any happy users of Automatic? [1] https://www.automatic.com
I used automatic for a while. It was pretty limited, and pricey. I've been using a panda for several weeks now, and FAR more capable. It probably boils down to: do you want a pretty UI dumbing the info down for you, or do you want the raw data so you can do things with it?
Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#37Isn't ODB-II just doesn't have anything useful for self-driving? What's is "fragile" part of ODB-II? How does this yet another dongle solve "fragile" part? Isn't it just arduino-like board and ODB-II shield?
OBD2 is the connector and the protocols used on that connector. The vehicle CAN bus is on the OBD2 port, and the "K-line", which is diagnostic only, is also there.
Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
he's answering in the comments, he says typical OBD interfaces are slow and fragile, which I surely believe. Is it me or is his ego made of titanium ? the reporter quotes "we're 3, waymo, tesla and us" .. yet he's building a cuter, faster obdII bridge I don't get it.
Those are the three players with actual networks of deployed self driving cars today. Granted, we are in third with 73 cars (and 1000's on chffr), but well ahead of every other startup. Waymo has around 200, we expect to pass them by the end of the year. In addition to this interface, we also give away source code to a driving agent: https://github.com/commaai/openpilot Looks like this when running (video from a user…
> Waymo has around 200, we expect to pass them by the end of the year.
Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? Waymo is a serious engineering effort with a lot of talented people working to do it right. There's a lot more to it than just how much data you throw at your NN.[0] Not to mention other companies comply with the law and report all their accidents.[1] Last year, you canceled your product[2] rather than answer a very short and simple safety questionnaire[3]. (Seriously, I've seen SaaS security compliance questionnaires with five times as many questions on them; that letter from the NHTSA was nothing!)
If you're still driving your vehicles around the streets of the SF Bay Area without any permits you are putting a lot of people in danger, including me. Pardon me if I think you're not only full of it, but irresponsible as well.
[0] http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1838:_Machine_Lear...
[1] https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/vr/autonomous/testi...
[2] https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/13453344/comma-ai-self-d...
[3] https://www.scribd.com/document/329218929/2016-10-27-Special...
Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#39Hotz is quoted as saying in the article, "there are only three real competitors: Waymo, Tesla and us." That's total bullshit. There are so many companies seriously working on autonomous vehicles, such as GM Cruise, Auroa Innovation, Drive.ai, Zoox, Nuro.ai, nuTonomy, Varden Labs, AImotive, Ford, and Nvidia Edit, because George is on here: George, I want to like you, because I think your tech is really good (the stree…
The dude is surfing on ignorants wow effect and past iphone jailbreak. Whatever he says, journalists believe. #fakeoldz
He can be arrogant in some interviews (I don't personally know him), but I doubt that we can discuss he isn't smart as fuck.
Re: Comma.ai launches an $88 universal car interface called Panda
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some mechanics charge you $120 literally just to plug in their OBD2 adapter and read the code, so yeah, even if it saves you one diagnostic fee, it's a bargain. Note that Hotz is claiming his readers will do a lot more than the conventional ones you've seen before. Whether or not that's true remains to be seen.
Most auto parts stores will read the codes for you for free. Some will even loan you tools to fix your car. They are in the business of selling parts and are happy to sell you whatever part you need to fix the problem.
Those are just basic data readers.
It's hit, or miss whether they will go into the Power train computer, ABS, or even the entertainment system.
It this guys dongle can get into pripriority systems, and read all power train, ABS sensors; I'll buy it.
You can get pretty good OB2 readers from China. They supposedly get into proprietary systems(don't know how they do it), but are better than paying for a dealership tool, or a Snap-on subscription.