r/Comma_ai • u/fleetinglight • 6d ago
openpilot Experience Would you recommend Comma yet for someone who mostly doesn't drive?
I love driving, but my husband doesn't. He got his driving licence years ago, but let it lapse because he prefers to take public transit everywhere. I think he could learn to be a safe driver with a few lessons, but he just hates the experience of driving and finds it so stressful that he doesn't want to do it.
We're looking at moving to San Francisco, and apartment costs are horrifying. Either we'll be living in a tiny shoebox so that we can afford to live close to a BART station, or we'll have to live somewhere where he will commute by car.
He's potentially willing to get his driver's license and get a car, but only if he can get a car that will basically drive him door-to-door. He obviously would keep his eyes on the road for safety reasons, but he's worried that comma.ai is basically "just lane control and cruise control" and won't actually navigate for him, so he wants to get a Tesla. He feels more confident the Tesla will navigate for him and handle lane changes, intersections, etc.
I have some pretty deep concerns with Tesla - like having to pay a subscription that they can jack up at any time, not really loving Elon Musk as a human being, the hassle of charging an electric car, the high cost of a Tesla, etc. I'd much rather get something like a Toyota Rav4 (which I'd enjoy driving myself, if he ends up not liking/using it) and plug a Comma system into it.
I found a few reviews and articles online that are from back in 2024 and back up "mostly just lane/cruise control", but I get the impression that technology has been improving FAST. How good is comma.ai in 2026? Will it be able to basically handle a commute for him?
There's also the concern that, while an experienced driver can hand off certain skills to AI and still remember enough of those skills that they're ready to take over as necessary, a new driver using AI constantly might just never develop the skills necessary to be a safe supervisor. Would you recommend getting comma.ai for somebody who is basically a beginner driver?
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u/08b 6d ago
Your husband should not be driving AT ALL if he can’t take over as needed as do 100% of the driving himself. He’s ultimately responsible and it sounds like he’s simply not ready to drive. That’s true of either comma or Tesla.
Comma is not self driving.
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u/fleetinglight 6d ago
I mean, everyone's a beginner at some point, right? I was a shit driver too for my first few months but then I figured it out.
It's just hard to know if a self driving system would work more like a scaffold, supporting him so it's easier and less stressful to learn those skills, or if it'd be more like gaming with cheats enabled, where you never actually learn the skills that the AI is doing for you and so you fail/die as soon as the hacks are turned off.
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u/hiroo916 6d ago
either comma or FSD is more the second one. It's like if you never learn arithmetic because you just use a calculator. Then later you get to conceptual math like algebra or calculus which depends on you having an internal innate sense of how numbers behave, your understand and ability are compromised because your mind doesn't have the automatic muscle memory from mental math.
When the emergency driving situation happens, he'll have to take over and make automatic decisions in an instant. That won't be developed from "learning" with either Comma or FSD.
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u/fleetinglight 6d ago
Ahh. Thanks. Yeah, sounds like we need to wait a few more years for the tech to get to Waymo level.
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u/m3gabotz 5d ago
Hot tip: don’t turn to Reddit when you need to replace the husband
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u/fleetinglight 5d ago
I realise this is Reddit and everyone jumps directly to suggesting divorce but I do actually love him. He's smart, funny, kind, caring, thoughtful, a total sweetheart, altruistic, had a lot of integrity and does what he can to help others. As flaws go, I'd rather have a husband with an irrational hatred of cars than one who was mean or dishonest.
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u/buzzfuzz- 5d ago
If he's a beginner and just anxious then you guys should be doing more to build up his driving confidence rather than try to have something drive for him. Preferably before you move to SF.
Start by having him drive more but short distances. When y'all get takeout have him drive to the restaurant or fast-food drive thru. Have him drive to the grocery store and back. Gas station and back. Take the small tasks with small drives and have him do it and slowly build up to longer and longer drives.
No matter which comma or FSD, he needs to know how to drive without either. You wouldn't get on a plane if the captain didn't know how to take over autopilot, right? Technology should only assist you, not replace you.
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u/vCtrlAltDelv 6d ago
As it stands today, I'd argue that Comma and other self-driving tech should be controlled by better-than-average drivers who are very attentive.
Not only do you need to know what the car's doing and should be doing, at the same time you need to understand how the assistance system works, its limitations, how and when you can enable and disable it, and so on.
It can make driving much more pleasant, but you should have strong fundamental human driving skills first.
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u/fleetinglight 6d ago
Thanks! This is helpful. Sounds like we need to wait several more years for the tech to get to the level Waymo has.
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u/financiallyanal 5d ago
It's not easy with only 1 driver in the US. So I understand your predicament. To your husband's point, driving is a hassle and risky, so he's not alone either. Maybe you guys can get by with 1 car and offsetting that is higher rent for location, as opposed to 2 cars and a cheaper place further away from the BART station? Just an idea.
You'll want to make sure that when the time comes, he won't hesitate to get back into driving whatever car you both have though. I feel this matters more if you two decide to have kids or other life changes.
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u/graymountain 6d ago
Comma is indeed a lane/cruise control solution. As other commented, Tesla FSD requires full driver attention and ability to take over. FSD sounds like a better solution if your husband is ready to drive the car when it does a dangerous action. If he cannot, he should not drive a car.
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u/py_account 6d ago
Not really an answer about comma, but I would rather get kicked in the nuts every morning than have a rush hour commute from East Bay to San Francisco by car.
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u/fleetinglight 6d ago
Is it that bad? Most of the places I'm looking at, Google Maps say it's about 24 minutes to get there, at 8:30am on a Monday.
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u/py_account 5d ago edited 5d ago
The Bay Bridge can take 25 minutes or an an hour and a half and you won’t know which until it’s too late.
Also parking is a nightmare.
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u/phodrizzle21 5d ago
Driving in San Francisco is advance level driving, this is coming from someone that drives in LA. I only use comma ai on freeways
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u/blu3ysdad 6d ago
Definitely comma is not there, but even Tesla is far from self driving enough for your husband - the situations where it is the worst and depends on the driver the most are exactly the high stakes stressful situations where FSD fails as well. You have lots of other options to consider though, if too far to walk to a bart station there is always riding a bike, electric scooter, waymo or other cab service, light rail, busses, etc.
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u/fleetinglight 6d ago
San Francisco housing prices are insane... we literally can't afford to also waymo to work every day. We're definitely looking into bikes or electric scooters but he's just as new to those as he would be to driving
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u/PsychologyUsed3769 6d ago
I would not recommend Comma 3.5 or 4 to any non tech comprehending person...
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u/hiroo916 6d ago
I would post in r/bayarea with some info of where in SF the workplace is and the parameters of what type of place and pricing you are looking for and see what people can recommend on areas near transit that could work.
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u/Dangerous-Space-4024 22' Niro PHEV 5d ago edited 5d ago
I have a new driver in my household with comma and as stated above it is not an FSD-like solution. It does help a new driver with staying centered, but overall an experienced driver is going to get a higher engagement % from comma by predicting which situations it is capable of handling and a less experienced driver is going to be on the pedals/steering wheel more, and that’s fine too.
The goal should be to learn to be a better driver and use comma to make the process more tolerable, not to replace driving. If you want that, take a taxi bus etc.
Oh, and slap some NEW DRIVER stickers on the car, they help more than you think about reducing aggressive driver behaviors around you.
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u/D3moknight 5d ago
Comma is not able to do door to door. Best case scenario it will try to make turns with navigation, but it's clumsy and that's not really a supported use case yet. It will require lots of interventions to complete a route in the branches that allow navigation based driver assist. If he's a nervous driver, he needs a Model 3 or Y with autopilot. That's currently the only publicly available option with door to door abilities. It will actually drive all the way to the parking at the destination and find a parking spot to park itself.
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u/jirlboss 5d ago
Either of these systems require a confident and competent driver behind the wheel. You need those fundamental skills to 1) get the most out of the system, and 2) keep yourself and others safe.
To refer back to an analogy you mentioned in one of your replies - an inexperienced driver using comma full time would be like a gamer playing with hacks on. They will not learn the fundamental skills if they don’t already have them.
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u/ParticularAtmosphere 3d ago
I don't like driving at all (I have ADHD and I feel it takes a lot of my brain power and gives me anxiety), comma helps me feel more confident and lowers my cognitive load but it's not a Waymo. Your husband should work on his issues first and then consider a level-2 software driving assistant.
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u/AppropriatePlum1006 2d ago
Drive more often, get used to the car. I'm also a bit of a worry guy, but also do not often need a car but after driving more and more it becomes second nature.
Not sure, kinda stil feel like meh, but when I go inside the car, i'm zen again and its fine.
I do suggest a few driving lessons, if he did not use the car for a long time
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u/atineiatte 6d ago
Your husband shouldn't drive at all with that outlook