Comma.ai’s new product called “Comma One” can turn your car into a semi-autonomous vehicle. The company claims this $999 after-market kit will allow buyers to give their cars semi-autonomous abilities on a par with Tesla’s Autopilot.
It will be ready to ship by the end of the year and require a $24 monthly software subscription fee. The aim is retrofit drivers with the ability to get from point A to point B without touching the wheel. Tests of the software show that it works well on straight roadways but not as well as on city streets.
The company expects to update it software to improve the auto-pilot’s functionality. Self-driving cars have the potential to save millions of lives — each year, we lose 1.2 million people to traffic accidents in the U.S. alone — and inject some 2.7 billion hours of productive time into the economy. Comma One is significant as it potentially brings this cutting edge technology to the 1.2 billion cars that are already on the road.