NHTSA Investigates Comma.ai Hands-Off Driving Tech After Five Crashes, Three Deaths
Federal regulators are investigating Comma.ai’s aftermarket hands-off driver assistance technology after five reported crashes, two of them fatal and resulting in three deaths. The ODI says some crashes may have involved modified versions of the company’s openpilot software.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation said this week that the crashes involved Comma devices failing to detect or respond to slow or stopped vehicles in the same road lane, according to TechCrunch. Across four of the crashes, as many as 11 people were injured, some seriously. The ODI also said some of the crashes, including at least one of the fatal incidents, may have involved “forked” or modified versions of Comma.ai’s software.
Comma.ai could not immediately be reached for comment, and George Hotz, the hacker who founded the startup, did not immediately return a request for comment, TechCrunch reported. Hotz distanced himself from the startup’s day-to-day operations in 2022.
Founded in 2015, Comma.ai makes devices that can be installed on a range of modern cars. The devices, along with Comma.ai’s openpilot software, can control a car’s Adaptive Cruise Control and Automated Lane Centering systems to perform functions “similar to Tesla Autopilot and GM Super Cruise,” according to the startup’s website. The goal, the website says, is to “make driving chill.”
Comma.ai’s website claims openpilot can steer, accelerate and brake automatically for other vehicles within its lane. Like Tesla and GM, Comma.ai warns drivers that they must always be capable of immediately retaking manual control of the vehicle, by stepping on either pedal or pressing the cancel button. The company’s device uses a camera-based driver monitoring system to watch for distracted or sleepy drivers.
One of the two fatal crashes appears to have happened in February 2026 in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. A 2022 Toyota RAV4, which was running FrogPilot, a third-party fork of openpilot, struck a stopped first responder vehicle. Louisiana State Police released details of a February crash that appear to match the report in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s database. In its description of the crash, the agency said two rear-seat passengers of the Toyota died.