Comma’s hands-off driving tech under investigation after 2 fatal crashes

Wed, Sep 23, 2026 12:12 PM

Comma.ai, the startup founded by hacker George Hotz, is facing a federal investigation after five reported crashes involving the company’s aftermarket hands-off driver assistance tech, two of which resulted in three deaths.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said this week that the reported crashes involved Comma 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.

Some 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.

Comma.ai could not immediately be reached for comment. Hotz, who distanced himself from the startup’s day-to-day operations in 2022, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Founded 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.”

Comma.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.

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 crash in February 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.

This story is developing…

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Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.

You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing sean.okane@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.

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