Comma AI/OpenPilot Update -- Watch it in Action on Gen1 Rivian (Video)

[dekeen]

Look at the video. These instructions were released well before the harness was developed for Rivian. In these pictures and instructions, the harness is at the windshield.

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[godfodder0901]

Look at the video. These instructions were released well before the harness was developed for Rivian. In these pictures and instructions, the harness is at the windshield.

No it isn't on the Rivian. It's in the passenger footwell, like you said. The 3x is on the windshield.

I'm just trying to help.

 

[DayTripping]

I have been trying to put it through some very demanding situations. An example would be a 90° turn. I took it down a dark, even with headlights, curvy road along a creek in Dallas (Turtle Creek Blvd). This is never well lit except when the sun is out and even then dark patches due to heavy tree cover. It has crested sections that drop off a bit, and it's hard to see where the road goes after some intersections.

I'd say if 100 is perfect, it was about a 75. The reason for my rating is on 2 of the tighter turns, it drifted a bit wide since it clearly wasn't getting enough torque to the wheel. Additionally, it had an issue choosing the right lane after an intersection.

That intersection is challenging, and you can see where the lanes are until you crest a little rise and the road turns. The good thing about how OP works is that it is cooperative steering. Meaning, if you adjust it, it doesn't stop working like Tesla's AP or FSD would.

So did it do as well as I would like? No. Did it do better than I thought it would? Yes. Overall it is pretty good and isn't the main release yet. As I find issues, I add them into their bug tracker.

Overall I gave it the following grades (out of 100):
Highways - 99
Normal secondary roads - 95
Difficult secondary roads - 75

It works places where Driver+ won't even think about. Each code release is getting better. I can see the advances. Even being limited by having to use Rivian's ACC, OP is very useful. I greatly appreciate the cooperative steering. To engage a lane change after you've put on your turn signal and checked that its clear is an easy touch.

Once this hits main release, it will then be adapted to the other OP forks like Frog, Sunny, etc. See below for a great reference chart regarding their capabilities. Good installation guides at the link below the image I copied. I am going SunnyPilot as soon as I can.

https://bderkhan.com/openpilot-branch-comparisons/

 

[User433]

Great update. Thank you! What's the best way to keep up on general progress across Rivian+Comma+OP as well as specific issues like Set Speed?

 

[DayTripping]

Probably through the Discord server. Try this link if you have a Discord account. Discord is sort of kludgy to learn but I've made my peace with it at this point.

Please read ALL the rules before you post. It is a very rough crowd there. Better to mostly listen to stay on top of stuff. There is a channel for each brand. It also allows you to place bug reports when you have issues but it helps to be thorough. Make sure you have Comma connect setup before you post any bug reports. You can replay your rate through the interface.

https://discord.com/invite/FEzeve2NX2

 

[DayTripping]

Check out SunnyPIlot here. It looks like it adds some nice features to OP. Even more useful once they crack the speed control.

https://www.sunnypilot.ai/

 

[Doc]

@DayTripping I'm a little confused about that chart you just posted showing different OpenPilot fork comparisons. What's the difference between SunnyPilot and FrogPilot????? It looks like the exact same features are checked for BOTH of them.

 

[DayTripping]

Thise are features at a high level. Frog pilot seems to be a little more bleeding edge than sunny, but they both offer more features than the basic open pilot.

There are more people running sunny than frog, but the frog community is a little tighter knit. To use an analogy, frog is more like android, and sunny is more like Apple. So sunny is a little more polished than frog, but frog has more customization options.

It’s easy to uninstall and install a different version. So pretty easy to try them all and see which you like. Best to wait until Rivian is in the main code release that they’re based upon.

does that help?

 

[Doc]

@DayTripping thanks for the info. Looks like I'll have some things to play around with once my harness and unit get here in a few weeks. It sounds like the "basic" Rivian program will be a good place to start. From reading posts in this thread, it seems like some folks are still working behind the scenes to polish things up a bit before its released to us. Once I'm familiar with it....I'll have a few things to try out with the other forks to see what works best for me. Can't wait for things to arrive!

 

[DayTripping]

I've been deep diving into some of the other forks. I can't wait for them to become available for the Rivian. Some really cool stuff they can do with other cars. This is really huge rabbit hole you can get sucked into. Some the neural network capabilities and so many parameters you can tweak along with adjust speed in advance based on mapping.

Before I just wanted this to be like an appliance, have a fridge and get cold beer. The more developed platforms have so many things you can tweak and would provide such deep capabilities as well as lot of fine, nuanced control over what you want to do.

I've been making a lot of test runs and submitting bug reports for areas of improvement. It is a pretty amazing ecosystem once you learn your way around it. Some incredibly bright and talented people are involved in this. I just spent an hour reading through pretting interesting stuff like Sigmoid curve for refining steering input and speed sensitive torque input.

This has been a much more interesting use of my time than doom scrolling on FB which thankfully I almost never get sucked into unless I see a Rivian, motorcycles or planes. Apparently RTTs have now showed up in my feed even though I only looked at one website; the Aircruiser RTT, and not every from FB.

 

[Doc]

One question that I've been curious about. I realize that you're supposed to pay attention when using OpenPilot. However, what happens in an emergency situation, such as an idiot pulls out in front of you, etc. Does OpenPilot react BEFORE you do even though you were attentive??? ...OR do you end up reacting before OpenPilot. I'm NOT looking for an excuse to not pay attention, I'm just curious about whose reaction time is quicker.......yours or OpenPilots.

 

[JM.]

One question that I've been curious about. I realize that you're supposed to pay attention when using OpenPilot. However, what happens in an emergency situation, such as an idiot pulls out in front of you, etc. Does OpenPilot react BEFORE you do even though you were attentive??? ...OR do you end up reacting before OpenPilot. I'm NOT looking for an excuse to not pay attention, I'm just curious about whose reaction time is quicker.......yours or OpenPilots.

In my experience with Tesla AP, I think it's always faster. But it's almost impossible to know, as the user, because I am also reacting, and my reaction disables AP. It would be impossible to answer your question since the exact situation can vary. One example is that my car slammed on the brakes for a guy running a red light before I could even see it, so it was much faster than me.

 

[brancky3]

One question that I've been curious about. I realize that you're supposed to pay attention when using OpenPilot. However, what happens in an emergency situation, such as an idiot pulls out in front of you, etc. Does OpenPilot react BEFORE you do even though you were attentive??? ...OR do you end up reacting before OpenPilot. I'm NOT looking for an excuse to not pay attention, I'm just curious about whose reaction time is quicker.......yours or OpenPilots.

There's almost zero chance that a human reaction would be faster, in my opinion.

 

[DayTripping]

Been racking up the miles with my Comma. A lot to really like about this and finding the areas for improvement too. Once they can fully integrate speed control with it, rather than using Rivian's ACC, I think it will be a big leap.

For now, it is still very good but I am noticing the issues with Rivian's ACC more. I can almost predict now where it might be an issue. Today was a new one though when it braked coming up to a traffic light. Not hard, but it was clearly trying to slow for it and then accelerated again. No cars in the intersection. This is not an OP issue.

Comma does a far better job when an off ramp starts to diverge from the main highway than Tesla does. Where it falls behind Tesla is where there is no mapping of roads and you can't tell visually where the road is going until the last second. Tesla has the data to guide the car mapped. This version of Comma can't use the OSM data (open street maps) to help it.

There are some things I like far better than what Tesla does. I didn't realize what a game changer cooperative steer for me is, but it is!

Cooperative steering allows you typically to work with OP, not against it, or it can be against it as well. Let's say Comma doesn't take the correct lane coming up to a difficult or blind intersection. You can nudge it back on track or totally go a different direction and it doesn't fit you but still stays engage. With Tesla's FSD/AP it immediately disengages. So maybe I don't like how the car is positioned with my Tesla, and I nudge it. Tesla just throws its hands in the air like my wife days and tells me to take over forever at that point. Driver+ is the same as Tesla. They are both my way or the highway.

OP just takes over again once I am done inputting things. Same approach when it can't quite handle the turn and starts to drift a bit wide. It doesn't just quit and let the car go straight while screaming at you to take over. It still keeps trying to turn the carn while asking for your assist. On the turns where I encounter that the torque limits aren't enough to make the turn, I've let it go as far as I safely I can. It still just keeps turning and comes back to its lane ultimately.

It isn't perfect, but it is really good. Take the time to experiment with it in a safe manner as you build confidence with it. I am now using it about 80% of the time I am driving as it works pretty intuitively for me. I drove about 120 miles today on all kinds of roads and I spent about 90% of the time with it on which worked out to about 80% of my roads and I tried it on a lot of slower secondary roads. I went down a road with no lines, massive construction, and set the cruise at 20 mph and it drove right through avoiding the grass and without any painted lines. I am not sure FSD could have done that.

For me OP is an absolute game changer on a daily basis. I love driving my truck, but this does great in the situations where I want to reduce my stress and workload. Unlike Driver+, there is continuing and constant development of the platform. They didn't dead end it like Rivian. Even with a .1 increment in releases, I could see the improvement. Absolutely worth the 2k I have invested so far.

 

[racekarl]

I am not using it about 80% of the time I am driving

From the rest of your post I think this is a typo and you meant to say "I am now using it about 80% of the time," is that correct? Small letter difference but huge meaning difference

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