NHTSA Probes Comma.ai Hands-Off Driving Kits After Multiple Fatal Crashes Left Drivers Dead

Federal safety regulators have opened an investigation into Comma.ai, the startup founded by hacker George Hotz, after five crashes involving its aftermarket hands-off driving kits. Two of those crashes killed three people.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation said this week that the crashes share a pattern: Comma devices failing to detect or respond to slow or stopped vehicles in the same road lane, as TechCrunch reported.

The toll runs wider than the deaths. Across four of the crashes, as many as 11 people were injured, some seriously.

Comma sells devices that clip onto a range of modern cars and run its "openpilot" software to steer, accelerate, and brake within a lane, functions the company likens to Tesla Autopilot and GM Super Cruise. It still tells drivers they must be ready to retake control at any moment, and a camera watches the cabin for distraction.

Part of the picture is muddied by modified software. Some of the crashes, including at least one of the fatal incidents, may have involved "forked" versions of openpilot rather than the code Comma ships, according to the ODI.

One fatal crash appears to trace to Ascension Parish, Louisiana, in February. A 2022 Toyota RAV4 running FrogPilot, a third-party fork of openpilot, struck a fully marked Gonzales Police Department unit that sat unoccupied in the left lane with its emergency lights on while officers worked a separate crash. Two rear-seat passengers in the Toyota died.

Comma's own website concedes the weak spot. It warns that openpilot's adaptive cruise control can be affected by "vehicles in the same lane that are not moving," and that the system is built to limit how hard it can brake when abrupt stops are needed.

The blind spot is not unique to Comma. Driver assistance systems have long struggled with stationary objects, and both Tesla and Ford have faced federal probes after their systems hit stopped vehicles, echoing the scrutiny around the Tesla Cybercab NHTSA probe.

Comma.ai could not be reached, and Hotz, who stepped back from the startup's day-to-day operations in 2022, did not respond to requests for comment.