{"slug": "comma-s-hands-off-driving-tech-under-investigation-after-2-fatal-crashes", "title": "Comma's hands-off driving tech under investigation after 2 fatal crashes", "summary": "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary evaluation (PE26007) into Comma.ai's aftermarket hands-off driver assistance technology after five reported crashes, two of them fatal and resulting in three deaths, in which Comma.ai devices failed to detect or respond to slow or stopped vehicles in the same lane. Across four of the crashes as many as 11 people were injured, some seriously, and the ODI said at least one fatal incident may have involved a modified \"forked\" version of Comma.ai's openpilot software, including a February 2026 crash in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, where a 2022 Toyota RAV4 running the FrogPilot fork struck a stopped Gonzales Police Department unit and two rear-seat passengers died. Comma.ai, founded in 2015 by George Hotz, who distanced himself from day-to-day operations in 2022, could not immediately be reached for comment.", "body_md": "[Comma.ai](https://comma.ai/), the startup founded by hacker George Hotz, is facing [a federal investigation](https://www.nhtsa.gov/?nhtsaId=PE26007) after five reported crashes involving the company’s aftermarket hands-off driver assistance tech, two of which resulted in three deaths.\n\nThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said this week that the reported crashes involved Comma.ai devices failing to detect or respond to slow or stopped vehicles in the same road lane. Across four of the crashes, as many as 11 people were injured, some seriously.\n\nSome of the crashes, including at least one of the fatal incidents, may have involved the use of “forked” or modified versions of Comma.ai’s software, according to the ODI.\n\nComma.ai could not immediately be reached for comment. Hotz, who [distanced himself](https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/02/george-hotz-aka-geohot-is-leaving-comma-ai-for-a-lofty-ai-project/) from the startup’s day-to-day operations in 2022, did not immediately return a request for comment.\n\nFounded in 2015, Comma.ai makes devices that can be installed on a range of modern cars. The devices — and Comma.ai’s software, “openpilot” — can control a car’s Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Automated Lane Centering (ALC) systems to perform functions “similar to Tesla Autopilot and GM Super Cruise,” according to the startup’s website. The goal is to “make driving chill.”\n\nComma.ai’s website claims that “openpilot can steer, accelerate, and brake automatically for other vehicles within its lane.” Still, much like Tesla and GM, Comma.ai warns drivers that they “must always be capable to immediately retake manual control of the vehicle, by stepping on either pedal or by pressing the cancel button.” The company’s device uses a camera-based driver-monitoring system to watch for distracted or sleepy drivers.\n\nOne 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.\n\nLouisiana State Police [released](https://lsp.org/community-outreach/news/two-killed-in-ascension-parish-crash-on-interstate-10/) details of a crash in February that appear to match the report in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s database. In that crash, the Toyota struck a “fully marked Gonzales Police Department unit, was unoccupied and positioned in the left lane with emergency lights activated while officers investigated a separate crash.” The state police said two rear-seat passengers of the Toyota died. \n\nThe other fatal crash couldn’t be immediately identified by the report numbers cited by the ODI.\n\nAdvanced driver assistance systems have historically struggled with stopped or slow vehicles, or other stationary objects. Tesla and Ford have faced similar investigations after their systems were involved in multiple crashes.\n\nComma.ai’s own website [states](https://comma.ai/support#what-are-the-limitations-of-openpilot-automated-lane-centering) that the “performance” of openpilot Adaptive Cruise Control can be affected by “vehicles in the same lane that are not moving.” \n\n“When abrupt braking maneuvers are required,” the company writes, “openpilot is designed to be limited in the amount of deceleration and acceleration that it can produce.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/comma-s-hands-off-driving-tech-under-investigation-after-2-fatal-crashes", "canonical_source": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/23/commas-hands-off-driving-tech-under-investigation-after-2-fatal-crashes/", "published_at": "2026-09-23 13:50:12+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-23 13:59:43.723478+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["autonomous-vehicles", "ai-safety", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Comma.ai", "National Highway Traffic Safety Administration", "Office of Defects Investigation", "George Hotz", "openpilot", "FrogPilot", "Louisiana State Police", "Gonzales Police Department"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/comma-s-hands-off-driving-tech-under-investigation-after-2-fatal-crashes", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/comma-s-hands-off-driving-tech-under-investigation-after-2-fatal-crashes.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/comma-s-hands-off-driving-tech-under-investigation-after-2-fatal-crashes.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/comma-s-hands-off-driving-tech-under-investigation-after-2-fatal-crashes.jsonld"}}