Code for self-driving car kit from iPhone hacker appears on GitHub

The code for the software and plans for the hardware of Comma.ai, a kit to turn any car into a self-driving car, has appeared on GitHub. The developer, former iPhone hacker George Hotz, wants to circumvent regulations by making the plans open source.

Due to the move, Hotz does not yet sell a product, but shows alpha software intended for research purposes, according to The Verge. As a result, he himself does not have to comply with strict regulations regarding the production of equipment for cars. He says he aims his software at enthusiasts. Last month, Hotz announced that he was stopping his project because of a letter he had received about it.

The code can be found on GitHub, for both the software and the kit, which Hotz refers to as Comma One. Currently, the project is far from ready for mass production and the developer will continue to develop both the hardware and software in the coming months.

In April, Hotz had raised another $3.1 million investment from the development of the system. He planned to release the Comma One before the end of this year for a price of $999 along with a monthly fee of $24 for the software. Hotz is known under the name Geohot, among other things, for the fact that at the age of seventeen he developed a jailbreak for the iPhone and later PlayStation 3 exploit.

Hotz with Comma One, image via comma.ai