Tesla Autopilot retrofit on a classic P85 (2016)
I was not expecting the massively negative responses here. For a site called “Hacker News,” you folks sure seem to stand in complete opposition to any hacking that’s outside your comfort zone.
So many people here shitting on this guy but it's going to be the future pretty much. Hell I have a GM truck and to add a front camera (for off roading) I'd have to pay like $2,000 for a 480p camera...
That said this guy is brave, not for the mod, but for posting pretty much all of the vin, the name of his car, and showing the color. Will not be hard for tesla to find it and blacklist charging, updates, parts, etc. Musk's ban hammer will be swift and harsh.
Amazingly detailed write up. I would love to know the reference material used to figure out the pinout's of the control units. One of the things I miss from older cars is how hackable they were. It feels like new cars are just a bunch of black boxes strapped together with no labels on them, so reading someone able to actually mod one is super impressive.
> First, don’t expect this to open the floodgates for people to start retrofitting autopilot on to older Model S. This was a pretty crazy project to take on, and honestly I’m not going to do it again. It requires the ability to modify the vehicle’s internal configuration and the ability to calibrate and VIN-burn various modules once they’re installed and wired, none of which I am disclosing methods for accomplishing, sorry.
:/
The difference between showing off and publishing research, I guess.
Excellent write up and project! Wish I had that much patience.
I am suprised it actually worked. Probably required some good connections at a Tesla service facility / input from someone who knows these cars in and out.
Surprising rhetoric in the comments. Serious question, at what point does working on a car become irresponsible? Does changing the brakes or tires count? How about changing the power steering fluid? Both of these examples can kill yourself or others if performed incorrectly. Should only mechanics be allowed to change this then? I wonder what is the threshold for "common sense" modifications and what is "an easy way to kill him and his wife"?
I love it! the last time I tinkered with cars, I was boosting and racing sufficiently powerful 4 bangers. Glad to see that hacking and modding electric cars is going to be a thing and the future generation can keep the tradition going.
Opening up wire harnesses introduces corrosion - I would not trust an autopilot car with hand soldered wire harnesses. There is a reason Tesla would replace all of the harnesses if they were to do this...Sure its fine now but in a few years those connections will start to fail.
This is amazing! Takes serious guts to open up a car like that! Of course there's lots of questions like how did you recalibrate the radars later on? And also how did you get hold of that new firmware to flash?
It’s hard to believe that $9000 + 50 hours of labour + time spent planning would be worth less than trading in the car for a new one.
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should."
As others have noted, this seems like a terrible idea. One small mistake, and it could kill his wife, himself, or someone else on the road. All the other self driving Teslas have at least gone through testing to make sure they are road safe.
I know I'll be avoiding any yellow Teslas from now on!
Great write-up. Elon talked last week about Tesla cars constantly evolving. Sounds like he figured out workable combinations of different parts from the software update metadata. Nifty.
Also expecting it to be blacklisted by Tesla next week.
This reads like a very sophisticated method to kill his wife.
Friends at Tesla?
Can't see the point on publicizing this. There is so much that can go wrong; auto steering could fail due to a slight misalignment in sensors, noise from the custom wiring, any kind of mismatch in the hardware or software. It is irresponsible to use the feature on public roads.
Tesla has _all_ the reasons in the world to find this car and take it out of service. On top of that, he killed the resale value.
Not something I'd consider roadworthy due to lack of rigorous testing.
richiebkidd[1] is that you?
Apart from getting home from the pub after a few too many beers, what's wrong with just driving a car?
Despite the billions of $ being poured into autonymous vehicles I've yet to find anyone who actually sees the need, or even less so would buy one.
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Impressive