George Hotz: I Can Make Your Car Drive Itself for Under $1,000

But can you test it for under $1,000 in a way that meets legal highway safety standards? Seems like the classic "Why is it $500 a pill?" problem. These things take enormous upfront development cost that needs to be baked into the cost of every subsequent unit.

In-car technology is a largely untapped market but there's better opportunities than something that requires access to the vehicle's most secure, most safety-critical systems. I personally would love to see a startup that works with car companies to create infotainment systems that work as dumb terminals to cell phones. The web browsers and media players that ship with cars are woefully outdated in just a few years and never updated; imagine now if there were a simple standard ala Android Auto that just put your phone as the "brain" for a variety of tested, secured, "documented APIs" to your car's functions.

Here (https://electrek.co/2016/10/28/george-hotz-cancels-his-tesla...) is an article of a run in Hotz had with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last year.

Although in the video he comes off as somewhat BS-y and irresponsible (you screw up your PS3 while hacking, you brick it; same thing for a car may very well kill you) I still like his overall maverick approach to the problem. Having a cheap cell-phone based OBD-II interaction mechanism with a simple GUI will may not solve the self-driving problem but may provide input for people to improve their driving. Therefore the "fitbit for your car" analogy is very apt.

I'm much more likely to trust my life to a company which says people own the stuff they buy, and that you shouldn't need to ask permission to do stuff with it, than a company that has every reason to lie about their products' capabilities and maybe even let your car choose to sacrifice you for someone else. I think it's quite likely comma.ai's position would never be to make a car operate outside of the owner's self-interest.

How about something simpler first like a robot that picks up dog crap?