Comma.ai to make your Acura semi-autonomous for $999 by year-end
Comma.ai, a self-driving car start-up headed by famed iPhone hacker, George Hotz, recently announced the launch of the Comma One semi-autonomous driving device, which claims to have the ability to retrofit an existing car and make it semi-autonomous; it is expected to be available by year-end for $999. The device is described as “off-the-shelf” with the main component the size of a large mobile phone, and only a screen and a pair of cameras to be fitted to the back. Of course, there is a drawback, so far the system is only compatible with Honda’s Acura, which already features lane-keeping systems, and therefore have built-in cameras. Comma.ai has not said if or when it will add more vehicle compatibility. 

Marco della Cava

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Would you pay $999 to give your car self-driving chops?

George Hotz is betting the answer is yes. The 26-year-old iPhone and PlayStation hacker turned entrepreneur is behind Comma.ai, a new Bay Area company that is powered largely by his brains and chutzpah, as well as $3 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz.

“It is fully functional, and about on par with Tesla Autopilot." Hotz told attendees at TechCrunch Disrupt Tuesday. “If they are the iOS of self-driving cars, we want to be Android."

Tesla has had its hands full grappling with various investigations into accidents and deaths that may be related to Autopilot, including the death of a U.S. Tesla owner in May and new reports of a death in China in January.

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Comma.ai's first aftermarket product, dubbed Comma One, should ship by the end of the year, Hotz said. That would be a wicked fast ramp-up for the company, which only launched in late 2015. Buyers also would be required to pay a $24 monthly fee to run Comma.ai's software.

Intially, Comma One gear — which centers on a computer brain and a camera — will be compatible only with Acura's $27,000 ILX sedan equipped with a Lane Keeping Assist system. The built-in radar featured in that lane-keeping system is also used by Comma One's software to help the car drive itself on the highway.

In time, Comma One will "probably (work with) all Honda and Acura (cars) with Lane Keeping Assist System," said the company's blog post.

Comma One's out-of-the-box comfort zone is limited to a very familiar stretch of highway known to Silicon Valley workers as Interstate 280.

“It’s Mountain View to San Francisco without touching the wheel,” Hotz said without adding details on when the product would feel comfortable tackling other busy commute corridors.

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If Hotz's name sounds vaguely familiar already, that's down to his hacking exploits.

In 2007, the teenager made news by hacking the then-new iPhone in order to make it work with carriers other than just Apple-approved AT&T. A few years later, Hotz was sued by Sony after he spent years working on cracking the security of the company's popular PlayStation 3 video console.

During an earlier TechCrunch Disrupt session, Marc Andreessen cited Hotz as a prime example of how startups can continue to challenge deep-pocketed giants such as Google and Uber, both of which have been working feverishly on self-driving car projects.

“He's one brilliant person, not 1,500 people," said Andreessen, a reference to the number of employees that his friend Jeff Bezos said he deployed on building voice assistant Alexa.

Andreessen, who has minted money betting on companies such as Facebook and Oculus, could well reap rewards if Hotz's venture is even moderately successful.

Consider as precedent another San Francisco startup, Cruise Automation, which was building aftermarket self-driving technology for cars at $10,000 a unit.

It's fate? Last May, Cruise was bought by General Motors for $1 billion.

Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter.