Famous or being the first hacker to jailbreak the iPhone at 17, George Hotz is taking on Waymo, Tesla, and Uber in the race to build the first fully operational self-driving car. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magaz... Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. He was also the first to jailbreak the PlayStation 3, allowing users to play with unauthorized software. Now this 28-year-old technical wunderkind is up against Waymo, Tesla, Uber, and most of the auto industry in the race to build the first fully operational autonomous vehicle.

George Hotz was the guy who freed the iPhone from the constrains of AT&T back in 2007. Now, George is all about cars, self-driving cars and his new company, Comma AI. George said prevoiusly in an interview that if Tesla if the iOS of self-driving, he wants Comma AI to the Android. In this Web Summit event, George tells us about Comma AI, their products and'ghostriding for the masses' before technology journalist Andy O'Donoghue chats to him about AI, critical mass of data for machine learning, and where CommaAI will sit in the self-driving landscape.

I always end the AI-Academy seminars's introduction with a slide containing this quote by Chris Dixon and in the background a picture of George Hotz in his self-made self-driving car. The message is simple: nowadays everyone can take advantage of Artificial Intelligence without spending years and tons of money in R&D. I strongly believe that this works both in case you want to push the boundaries of technology (George Hotz's style), and in case you want to apply some well established AI methodologies to new problems. Since some people were not 100% convinced by this, I decided to prove it and invest some of my time to actually do it. As my business professor at Santa Clara University was used to say, "you've got to taste your dog's food".

I always end the AI-Academy seminars's introduction with a slide containing this quote by Chris Dixon and in the background a picture of George Hotz in his self-made self-driving car. The message is simple: nowadays everyone can take advantage of Artificial Intelligence without spending years and tons of money in R&D. I strongly believe that this works both in case you want to push the boundaries of technology (George Hotz's style), and in case you want to use some well established AI methodologies to new problems. Since some people were not 100% convinced by this, I decided to prove it and invest some of my time to actually do it. As my business professor at Santa Clara University was used to say, "you've got to taste your dog's food".

A self-driving Tesla comes with a hefty price tag, but a college student has given his Honda Civic similar abilities for a fraction of the cost. Brevan Jorgenson has unveiled a device that replaces the rear-view mirror, which controls the brakes, accelerator and steering – and it only cost $700 to build. The DIY device uses the hardware design and software shared online by Comma.ai last year, which had originally planned to upgrade cars with the technology. Brevan Jorgenson, a senior at the University of Nebraska, used the free online hardware designs and software that was shared by Comma.ai The device, called Neo, was set to be sold on Amazon but was canceled when regulators questioned its safety.

Oh, darn, somebody already took the username'Joeyjoejoe.' Bonus points if you get the reference. You don't have to be a billionaire investor to get involved with the development of self-driving cars. Thanks to George Hotz and his company, Comma.ai, Chffr is available only for Android phones at the moment.

Hacker, entrepreneur, rabble rouser and freeform rapper George Hotz joined us on the Engadget stage at CES to talk about the decision to open source his autonomous-car research and the state of self driving. He also weighed in on California's regulatory system (he's not a fan) and how he's excited about the future of augmented reality.

Self-driving-cars are notoriously difficult to test for safety. Hotz writes in an email, "It's not my code, I did not release it"--Comma.ai Inc. "released and maintains it." Most legal experts that spoke with IEEE Spectrum--and Hotz himself--believe that if you use the company's code and something goes wrong, then it isn't liable for damages. But Consumer Watchdog advocate John Simpson doesn't believe this is fair.

Earlier this year, Andreessen Horowitz investor Chris Dixon noted the challenge investors face in helping to groom promising AI startups, given how quickly Facebook, Google, and Amazon are bringing aboard related talent. Dixon noted, for example, that Wit.ai, a Y Combinator startup that built voice-activated interfaces that Facebook bought and which now powers its Messenger platform, was only in Andreessen Horowitz's portfolio for a few months when Facebook bought it. But firm co-founder Marc Andreessen said on stage at Disrupt today that the firm is beginning to see things swing in the opposite direction. "Two years ago, it seemed like four or five companies were hoovering up all the talent . . . I think something like 1,500 people over four years [were involved in] building Alexa," the technology that powers Amazon's voice-controlled home computer Echo.

Mobileye and Tesla have begun trading barbs illuminating the real reason behind their split. "[Tesla's Autopilot] is not designed to cover all possible crash situations in a safe manner," said Amnon Shashua, Chairman and CTO of Mobileye, the Israel-based maker of collision detection and driver assistance systems. "[Telsa] was pushing the envelope in terms of safety." "When Tesla refused to cancel its own vision development activities and plans for deployment, Mobileye discontinued hardware support for future platforms and released public statements implying that this discontinuance was motivated by safety concerns." Mobileye--the company whose technology underlies the majority of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and semi-autonomous driving suites on the market, may not be at the cutting edge of the technology on which they've built their reputation.