Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#1

Post by fabrice_d » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:35 PM UTC

Autopilot: an open source driving agent
github.com

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#2

Post by dejawu » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 6:48 PM UTC

This is great IMO. I was incredibly dismayed to hear they were canceling the Comma One without any further action, without even attempting to work with regulators. This seems like the culmination of that - now the responsibility for safety is in the hands of individual users/developers and not on Comma, which is what got them in trouble in the first place.

Now that this is open source though, I wonder what their next project will be?

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#3

Post by sounds » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 7:08 PM UTC

I have my reservations about this code. I am a long time free software developer so it is hard to say it but it seems clear to me that a single entity (from a legal perspective) has to "own" the self-driving car software.

In the future bits of a self-driving car system may get open-sourced the way Facebook Open Compute has emerged in data centers, but first the proprietary implementations will need to pave the way in the legal world.

It's not all bad news, though: I'd love to see a free software project that converted my lawn mower into a self-driving lawn mower...

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#4

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 7:11 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#5

Post by revelation » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 7:14 PM UTC

This seems to be a code dump from the comma AI startup. It also indicates their autonomous driving platform runs on a "stripped version" of Android.

Which seems to indicate that they are clinically insane, given they are using a system that can easily have excessive scheduling latencies under load to steer a car.

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#6

Post by jaclaz » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 7:19 PM UTC

Actually the thingy is called "openpilot", there is already enough confusion with Tesla calling its thing "autopilot".

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#7

Post by Matthias247 » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 7:26 PM UTC

Really, a safety critical hard realtime system with control loops on top of Python, a general purpose OS and a CAN-USB adapter?

There are reasons why we have realtime operating systems, deterministic bus systems and dedicated CPUs for these kinds of applications.

That might be an interesting research, prototyping or simulation platform. But nothing you want to have on a real public road.

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#8

Post by sailingparrot » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 7:47 PM UTC

Not everything seems to be open source. I can't seem to find the vision part, only the binary, see: https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/tree/master/selfdrive/v...

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#9

Post by randomdata » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 7:50 PM UTC

Matthias247 wrote: post #7

Really, a safety critical hard realtime system with control loops on top of Python, a general purpose OS and a CAN-USB adapter? There are reasons why we have realtime operating systems, deterministic bus systems and dedicated CPUs for these kinds of applications. That might be an interesting research, prototyping or simulation platform. But nothing you want to have on a real public road.

> these kinds of applications.

As in research projects, which this project expressly states that it is? What are those reasons? It seems like being able to test theories as quickly and cheaply as possible is the top priority. If Python, a general purpose OS, and a CAN-USB adapter is sufficient to conduct the research and satisfies those attributes, it seems like the perfectly logical way forward.

I understand why you would want to move to such systems you describe once your research has concluded and you are now building something for production, but that is not the intent of this project, at least at this stage. It specifically says so.

Re: Autopilot: an open source driving agent

#10

Post by ryaneager » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 8:05 PM UTC

randomdata wrote: post #9

Matthias247 wrote: post #7

Really, a safety critical hard realtime system with control loops on top of Python, a general purpose OS and a CAN-USB adapter? There are reasons why we have realtime operating systems, deterministic bus systems and dedicated CPUs for these kinds of applications. That might be an interesting research, prototyping or simulation platform. But nothing you want to have on a real public road.

> these kinds of applications. As in research projects, which this project expressly states that it is? What are those reasons? It seems like being able to test theories as quickly and cheaply as possible is the top priority. If Python, a general purpose OS, and a CAN-USB adapter is sufficient to conduct the research and satisfies those attributes, it seems like the perfectly logical way forward. I understand why you…

Why wouldn't you do the research on a platform that could actually be deployed? Build the core using the proper tools and techniques. Any bug in a system like this could be life threatening at worst. Wouldn't you want to use the research phase to help eliminate such bugs?

Unless you're not planning on ever releasing then a platform like this makes sense for strictly research, but Comma AI did plan on releasing their product until they got shut down.