Chat_172 - Sovereign Devices in a Subscription World with Harald Schäfer

"comma develops open source ADAS software. You can call it self-driving software, but currently what we ship is something where the user is supposed to pay attention all the time."

"We want the software to be open source so that people have full control. The hardware is something you have root on. We don't have any access to your device in terms of that's necessary to make it operate normally. There's some telemetry that you can turn off if you want. The device is something you buy, you run open source software on it and there's no cloud involved in making it work as an ADAS product."

***"We're pretty passionate about making sure that if you buy something you own it, if you run software, it should be open source and you should be able to modify it, or at least we shouldn't be able to stop you. That should be a thing that you control."

~ Harald Schäfer***

In this episode I talk with Harald Schäfer, CTO of comma(.)ai, about building sovereign driver-assist tech that runs locally on hardware you actually own. We dig into open-source ADAS, resisting the subscription and cloud-control model, how comma stayed sustainable without obtaining billions from VCs, and the real impact of modern AI on software development and robotics. We also get into the nerdy details of training self-driving models using a generative video simulator built from real-world driving data.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Intro and why comma matters

(00:05:28) - Sovereign tech and DRM

(00:08:38) - Open-source ADAS and user control

(00:10:27) - You’ll own nothing and be happy

(00:12:39) - AI, privacy and open source

(00:16:31) - Harald’s path into comma(.)ai

(00:21:27) - Car support and installs

(00:24:39) - Sustainable business vs VC

(00:34:01) - LLMs, coding and debt

(00:43:40) - Generative simulators for driving

(00:58:56) - In-person hardware engineering teams

(01:24:45) - Regulation and walled gardens

(01:30:26) - Final thoughts and how to try comma(.)ai

Guest Links

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comma on X (Link: https://x.com/comma_ai)

comma's Website (Link: https://comma.ai/)

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