We asked the adults in the room, and these are their statements on the topic:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told us they are “subject to NHTSA’s defect authority” and that any company must recall equipment that poses an “unreasonable risk to safety”. Great, but, the Make Inoperative provision — a rule that stops an entity from messing with your safety systems — has a caveat: “it does not apply to individuals”. That’s the loophole. The front door is locked, but the garage is wide open.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) was quick to point out that these are “driver convenience systems” and not “safety systems”. They also told us they have “no plans to evaluate any aftermarket system” that takes active control. They did test lesser, warning-only systems and found they “performed much worse” than the factory ones.
Surely SEMA, the aftermarket lobby, has a plan? They’re all for the “right to modify,” naturally. But when we asked about safety validation: “there are no industry self-regulation or safety validation guidelines/practices that can be referenced”. And when we asked about that “research tool” legalese, it was mentioned it is always important for “clear communication”.
We reached out to Comma.ai via their support email as listed on their terms and policy page. That email got a bounce back saying that Comma support does not read or reply to emails, and urged to file a ticket, in which none of the available ticket options were for questions or inquiries.
So let’s recap. We have a “convenience system” that the IIHS won’t test, that SEMA says has zero safety standards currently, and that NHTSA could recall but lets slide through a loophole.
Look, innovation is cool. David vs. Goliath is a great story, and looking at an aftermarket ADAS system holistically, it is genuinely impressive what is possible. But this isn’t a new app for ordering tacos — it’s alpha code, running on an old phone, that’s spoofing commands to the steering rack of a multiple-thousand-pound vehicle. And it’s doing it on public roads, right next to your family.
