Yesterday Geroge Hotz (the same guy who unlocked the first iPhone, and hacked the PS3) showed off his prototype of a self driving car add-on that costs less than $1000 and can be installed by anyone.
A TLDR of the presentation, but feel free to watch the 20 minute video if you'd like:
Costs $999 plus a $24/month data plan
Installs in place of your rear view mirror
Comma One relies on built-in car front radars and comes with a camera.
Currently only supported on Hondas or Acuras with LKAS (Lane Keep Assist System) Like the Acura ILX for example
More car models will follow in the future
If you live in the SF Bay area you can be in their beta program and get one right now.
What it can do today:
Once you're on the highway in Mountain View, it will drive you all the way to the San Francisco exit without you touching the, Gas, Brake, or Steering wheel.
https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/13/comma-ai-will-ship-a-999-autonomous-driving-add-on-by-the-end-of-this-year/
In addition to that Comma has been ingesting thousands of hours of driving data from ~750 users of their Dash and Chffr apps for Android and Iphone.
http://comma.ai/
These apps record driving data from the user's smartphone which is then used to train the AI that is learning to drive "like humans would".
I've been following their progress for a while, as well as logging 60+ hours of driving data myself and can say that Tesla has got some fresh competition that is going to be pretty cool once it becomes widely available. I have attached the two press photos of the device, plus a screen capped photo of the "front" of the device for you all to look over. This is a heavily "beta" product, so it's not quite what you'd see on the market but George seems set on shipping this by the end of the year.
This was my first post in the Tech News section. Let me know how I can improve in the future. I figured given all of Luke's talk about Tesla, I figured he'd like to see this. Plus since Luke has an Acura, there is a chance he can get one in the near future to play with...