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Comment by ah- | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what the long term goal is? Getting acquired by some auto manufacturer?

I don't see many people that own modern enough cars (having the required electronics/mechanics already installed so all that's needed is a sensor and some data processing to send out control signals) investing into a retrofit device instead of just buying the next model which comes with the same thing out of the box.

But I have to say that I'm impressed that they have made it this far, and almost certainly without any support from Audi.

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We use our own actuators to control your steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake pedal. It's designed to work on any car, regardless of whether it has any drive-by-wire capabilities.

My blood runs cold.

What, you think you can't overpower a little servo?

I'm more worried about having to outrun it.

https://www.google.com/search?q=old+person+drives+through+fa...

An actuator getting stuck on heavy acceleration? I'm also a skeptic, but you should be more clear about what your concern is, since the proponents will say some kind of automatic radar braking system could have prevented this.

On many cars, even if a deliberately hostile entity takes control of your gas pedal, hitting the brakes cuts power to the engine. And even if it doesn't, brakes can usually (not always, but usually) win a fight with the accelerator.

Of course not.

I'm afraid of the interaction between laypeople, a retrofitted cruise control that was designed on a kickstarter budget and several tonnes of hurtling steel.

Very interesting, how do you control the steering wheel? Most solutions I've seen for that were either really clunky (and unsafe, as they obstructed the airbag etc.) or used/replaced the power steering. I just assumed you would have used the existing interfaces, I know for a fact that at least the current A6 has all the necessary hardware on board, and am pretty certain that the A4 has the same for park assist.

Have you thought about selling your system directly to manufacturers for integration? I'm certain that there are chances if you're able to deliver a working component that can simply be integrated into existing models. Most of the current assistance systems aren't developed in-house but come from one of the big third party suppliers.

We 3d scan the cavities in the driver's side footwell, design brackets in CAD, then manufacture them mostly out of 3d printed polycarbonate and aluminum. They bolt directly onto the existing components and are tucked away behind the trim. It's one of our design requirements that the actuators are completely hidden and imperceivable when not in use.

We don't touch any of the existing drive-by-wire controls, even if they're present. It's too dangerous to send signals down a CAN bus without a full understanding of the safety implications, and that kind of proprietary information isn't available to us.

That is a curious choice. Why not use existing sensors on the vehicle?

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