Authorities threaten hacker Geohot. The release of the homemade autopilot is canceled.

“I would rather have devoted my life to developing amazing technologies than communicating with regulators. It’s not worth it, ”Geohot said and announced the termination of work in the United States.

Almost a year has passed since the talented hacker Geohot [ George Hots] assembled an unmanned vehicle in his garage . Soon, the “old woman” Acura ILX that he reworked splendidly drove along the highway, carrying out complex maneuvers at speeds up to 100 km / h, rebuilt in rows and performed various stunts that she had mastered during several months of neural network training. The author posted on Github source code and a set of data for learning the neural network. It seemed that everyone was about to be able to install a real autopilot on their car by purchasing a subscription to Comma One for $ 999 and a set of equipment.

Geohot became famous almost ten years ago when it released the first ever jailbreak for iPhone. A seventeen-year-old schoolboy hacked an iPhone in 2007, and three years later became the author of the Sony PlayStation 3 jailbreak. Despite attempts by Sony, she never managed to bring the guy to justice.

It seemed to be a real success story, where one talent in the field of programming can confound the huge automobile concerns and main competitor of Tesla Motors, although Ilon Musk personally invited the wunderkind to work with a multi-million bonus. Geohot rejected the invitation of a haughty competitor and chose to work alone. He founded his own startup Comma.ai and was going to sell Comma One kits by the end of this year.
')
According to the author, 7.5 hours of training is enough for a neural network to master basic driving skills. After that, everyone will be able to repeat the experiment that George Hots showed last year to a Bloomberg journalist on his Honda (see video).

The first demonstration of the autopilot of George Hots, 2015


Geohot explained that his autopilot is fundamentally different from those on the market. It does not rely on a set of programmed rules. After a relatively small training, the neural network drives perfectly on the highway, is rebuilt from a strip into a strip, it slows down and accelerates as needed, fits perfectly into turns and does not require driver participation for many, many kilometers. For example, if the autopilot sees a cyclist, then he frees him a little band, because Geohot did so in the past.

Geohot said that installing an autopilot in his car would be as easy as assembling Ikea furniture. To install the autopilot requires that the car had at least an electric power steering and electronic stability control (ESC) system. Adaptive cruise control or automatic re-entry into the adjacent lane is not required. Equipment sold separately. For $ 999, a customer receives a 24-month software subscription.

“Zoox, Tesla, Google and Cruise, we are waiting for your releases of your open source software,” said George to competing companies that are developing in this area. “Open software is better than closed.” Geohot said that now their program is not inferior to the capabilities of Tesla. "If Tesla is like iOS for robotic cars, then we want to be Android."

Everything was great, until the hacker initiative stumbled upon the bureaucracy of the authorities. On October 28, 2016, George Hots sadly announced that he had received such a letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Special Order Directed by Comma.ai


“Dear Mr. Hotz,” said the letter. - Recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration became aware of your company, which is going to sell a certain “comma one” (Comma One) product, which according to your application allows some Honda cars (and potentially some Acura cars) to work in a semi-autonomous mode. In a blog post dated October 20, 2016, you described your system as an “advanced driver assistance system” or “in the terminology of traditional automakers”, as a “lane retention system” and “adaptive cruise control”. ”

NHTSA officials write that if a car requires an “after sales upgrade”, that is, a re-equipment of standard equipment, then the manufacturer of such equipment is subject to section 301 of the Safety Act and to regulation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Management.

“We are concerned that your product puts at risk the safety of your users and other road users,” the letter said. “We strongly recommend that you postpone the sale or withdrawal of your product on public roads until you are certain that it is safe.”

Officials believe that, from the developer’s side, there is not enough assurance that each driver uses the autopilot at his own risk and carries the associated risks (under this slogan Tesla pushed its automatic piloting system into the market), is committed to keeping its hands on the steering wheel and always be ready take control.

Federal laws set minimum safety standards. Any automaker or equipment developer, distributor, dealer or workshop is prohibited from violating these standards.

The NHTSA administration demanded that George Hots, in accordance with the requirements of the Safety Act, respond to this letter and send the product information provided in the letter before November 10, 2016. In case of disobedience, it may be fined up to $ 21,000 per day.

“The first time I heard something from them and they started with threats. No attempt to establish a dialogue, ”Geohot commented on the received letter from NHTSA.


The NHTSA's “special order” lists 15 points for which a response from Comma.ai is required. For each item, provide a description and accompanying documents on the operation of the Comma One autopilot system. Preparing such a package of documents is a lot of work. And it is immediately clear that correspondence with NHTSA will not be limited to this package, this is only the beginning.

Naturally, the hacker is not going to enter into correspondence with officials: "I would rather have devoted my life to developing amazing technologies than communicating with regulators."

Geohot believes that the solution to this problem is migration to a more suitable region for doing business: “Comma One is canceled. Comma.ai will explore other products and other markets. ”


“Hello to you from Shenzhen, China,” George wrote in his last but one tweet . And he added that NHTSA never asked for a test drive.

Obviously, the story just won't end. If Geohot does not respond to the letter, it may impose a fine. The autopilot program is released open source and is freely available. Let's see how events will develop further. Recall that Sony has pursued a guy a few years for breaking into the Playstation 3, but in the end was forced to give up.


Hacker Geohot in his garage, where he tested the first version of autopilot

According to lawyers , Geohot comments are an illustration of a classic conflict between innovators and regulatory authorities. Lawyers believe that a hacker will have to accept the fact that in some regulated industries - finance, health care, etc. - There is no way to avoid coordinating their work with officials. In this case, the inventor and the hacker are required to obey the 50-year-old Safety Act - and nothing can be done about it.