Self-driving discussion thread (2026)

[Kaido]

Great video on the upcoming Rivian R2:

* $2,500 system (Tesla charges $8,000 & Lifetime is being retired this week in favor of a $99/mo subscription service)
* 11 cameras (65 megapixels total)
* 5 radars (including a front imaging radar)
* LIDAR (top of windshield)
* In-house compute platform
* Self-driving computer developed in-house by Rivian (800 TOPS platform with two of them for 1,600 TOPS)

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Tesla has the best platform on the planet, but they lack LIDAR, which I think will hold them back.

 

[Kaido]

Latest Tesla FSD with Grok:

Voice command demonstration, works better than Siri lol

 

[_Rick_]

I'm disappointed that MB has no direct successor to their L3 system available.
Would have been the time to raise the bar with even more L3 ODD, or even a limited L4, instead it's back to zero autonomy.

On the upside, Waymo is finally starting to break out of regional deployment and going (sort-of) global. I guess it will be restricted to high-value locations for quite a while. I wonder if they can get a leg into Asia next.

In the meantime, I remain unimpressed by these half-assed sorta-convenience functions, which are just going to stress you out, as you constantly anticipate them trying to kill you.

 

[bbhaag]

Now that Ford has announced their new EV strategy I suspect that BlueCruise 1.3 is all my 2023 Mach-E is getting. Why waste resources on a platform that you are no longer going to support?

Anyway, since this is the self driving thread it should mention the open source project called Open pilot brought to us by the folks over at https://comma.ai/. This open source project is not just for Ford vehicles. It works on a variety of differing manufacturers. I've never used it first hand but a few people on the Mach-E forum I hang on have and all of them claim it is better than Fords current implementation.

This is an option for people who want the tech but it was never offered in the vehicle they drive or for people like me who are getting left behind by the manufacturer and want to keep the tech but with improved performance and stability.

The only fly in the ointment is if Ford decides to send an OTA update to encrypt the CAN bus on older models of the Mach-E like they have on the 2025 model year. This will essentially render open source options unusable unless someone can break the encryption.

 

[Kaido]

Now that Ford has announced their new EV strategy I suspect that BlueCruise 1.3 is all my 2023 Mach-E is getting. Why waste resources on a platform that you are no longer going to support?

Anyway, since this is the self driving thread it should mention the open source project called Open pilot brought to us by the folks over at https://comma.ai/. This open source project is not just for Ford vehicles. It works on a variety of differing manufacturers. I've never used it first hand but a few people on the Mach-E forum I hang on have and all of them claim it is better than Fords current implementation.

This is an option for people who want the tech but it was never offered in the vehicle they drive or for people like me who are getting left behind by the manufacturer and want to keep the tech but with improved performance and stability.

The only fly in the ointment is if Ford decides to send an OTA update to encrypt the CAN bus on older models of the Mach-E like they have on the 2025 model year. This will essentially render open source options unusable unless someone can break the encryption.

As much as I don't like it, I agree with Ford encrypting their stuff:

 

[Kaido]

Now that Ford has announced their new EV strategy I suspect that BlueCruise 1.3 is all my 2023 Mach-E is getting. Why waste resources on a platform that you are no longer going to support?

Anyway, since this is the self driving thread it should mention the open source project called Open pilot brought to us by the folks over at https://comma.ai/. This open source project is not just for Ford vehicles. It works on a variety of differing manufacturers. I've never used it first hand but a few people on the Mach-E forum I hang on have and all of them claim it is better than Fords current implementation.

This is an option for people who want the tech but it was never offered in the vehicle they drive or for people like me who are getting left behind by the manufacturer and want to keep the tech but with improved performance and stability.

The only fly in the ointment is if Ford decides to send an OTA update to encrypt the CAN bus on older models of the Mach-E like they have on the 2025 model year. This will essentially render open source options unusable unless someone can break the encryption.

We have a subreddit for that!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Comma_ai/

Comma 4 hardware just dropped:

Introducing the comma four

Our smallest and most powerful device, available now for $999

blog.comma.ai

Over 300 vehicles supported:

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An AI upgrade for your car

comma.ai

Including Tesla:

And Rivian: