Hacker Built a Self-Driving Car In His Garage - Bloomberg

[Lanny]

Ashlee Vance, who wrote the recent Elon Musk biography, has a story about hacker, George Hotz and the self-driving car that he built by himself.

Hotz met with Elon and was offered a job but turned it down.

A friend introduced him to Musk, and they met at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, Calif., talking at length about the pros and perils of AI technology. Soon enough, the two men started figuring out a deal in which Hotz would help develop Tesla’s self-driving technology. There was a proposal that if Hotz could do better than Mobileye’s technology in a test, then Musk would reward him with a lucrative contract. Hotz, though, broke off the talks when he felt that Musk kept changing the terms. “Frankly, I think you should just work at Tesla,” Musk wrote to Hotz in an e-mail. “I’m happy to work out a multimillion-dollar bonus with a longer time horizon that pays out as soon as we discontinue Mobileye.”

“I appreciate the offer,” Hotz replied, “but like I’ve said, I’m not looking for a job. I’ll ping you when I crush Mobileye.”

Musk simply answered, “OK.”

George Hotz Is Taking on Tesla by Himself

Lanny

 

[scott jones]

Ashlee Vance, who wrote the recent Elon Musk biography, has a story about hacker, George Hotz and the self-driving car that he built by himself.

Hotz met with Elon and was offered a job but turned it down.



George Hotz Is Taking on Tesla by Himself

Lanny

I read the entire article, extremely interesting. I think he's got the correct idea to simplify automated driving by NOT writing a million line of code to account for every situation. Instead, his is a learned computer, which is where computers will have to go to advance. Plus, if his algo's are good, it will be far less labor intensive to code, etc. I also thought it was interesting to read Elon's apparent note about Tesla "getting rid of Mobile Eye,". Read the entire thing for yourself.

 

[Discoducky]

Very good article, but he's not 'taking on Tesla' rather he's 'taking on Mobileye's algo's' and not Mobileye hardware or other stuff

And it would seem that this direction is intriguing if it is true that he can handle longitudinal (steering) control with ~2000 lines of Linux whatever code. And I think Ashley made a good point, or maybe it was Hotz directly in that this approach is more general AI and the car making situational decisions that feel like intuition based on learning. The example of the bicycle caught my attention as he seems to say that there is no code that says "IF bicycle, move over in lane" but rather it thinks "I see something that is about the size, shape and motion of a person riding a bike so I'll try to do the thing that I've learned while doing the other things that I've learned" in a general intelligence sort of way.

Very cool stuff!

Maybe he'll post videos to his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/geohot

 

[hockeythug]

I was wondering what he was up to these days. I remember him from his iPhone jailbreaks.

 

[mikes_fsd]

Very good article, but he's not 'taking on Tesla' rather he's 'taking on Mobileye's algo's' and not Mobileye hardware or other stuff

yeah... but then you can't have the right headline with "tesla" plastered all over the interwebs...

 

[Ronikarre]

Damn that guy always try to make the impossible, a real legend!

 

[Trev Page]

Tesla has hired George Hotz?

Its' being reported that Tesla is going to dump MobileEye and possibly hire George Hotz, who was famous for being the first hacker to jailbreak the iPhone in 2007.

He's already built a self-driving Accura.

George Hotz Is Taking on Tesla by Himself

 

[LetsGoFast]

The story doesn't say that Tesla hired him. In fact, it says the opposite -- that he turned down a job offer from them.

 

[Canuck]

“I live by morals, I don’t live by laws,” Hotz declared in the story. “Laws are something made by a-s-s-h-***s.”

“The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’ ”

“I don’t care about money,” he says. “I want power. Not power over people, but power over nature and the destiny of technology."

How come the technology geniuses are usually also the biggest jerks? I wish him well but he needs to understand that he is not the centre of the universe. It's so refreshing to see the boyhood wonder of someone like Elon Musk rather than the likes of...

16 Examples Of Steve Jobs Being An Unbelievable Jerk - Business Insider

 

[muleferg]

Here Too.

Hacker Built a Self-Driving Car In His Garage - Bloomberg

 

[anticitizen13.7]

“I live by morals, I don’t live by laws,” Hotz declared in the story. “Laws are something made by a-s-s-h-***s.”

“The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’ ”

“I don’t care about money,” he says. “I want power. Not power over people, but power over nature and the destiny of technology."

How come the technology geniuses are usually also the biggest jerks? I wish him well but he needs to understand that he is not the centre of the universe. It's so refreshing to see the boyhood wonder of someone like Elon Musk rather than the likes of...

16 Examples Of Steve Jobs Being An Unbelievable Jerk - Business Insider

It's not about being the "center of the universe".

It's about having an understanding of the world that the vast majority of people don't have and will never have. To some degree, that's frustrating to people like George Hotz. I grinned when I read what Hotz said about grad school classes, the corporate grind at Google, and what I think he is saying about the societal uselessness of working for Facebook, because I think what he says is true.

I share some of these antisocial traits, but I don't have the raw intelligence of this guy. Can he beat Mobileye? I wouldn't discount the possibility, although I think he will need some serious help on the business end of things. Half of all business deals come down to "I [like/don't like] that guy".

 

[Canuck]

It's not about being the "center of the universe".

It's about having an understanding of the world that the vast majority of people don't have and will never have. To some degree, that's frustrating to people like George Hotz. I grinned when I read what Hotz said about grad school classes, the corporate grind at Google, and what I think he is saying about the societal uselessness of working for Facebook, because I think what he says is true.

I share some of these antisocial traits, but I don't have the raw intelligence of this guy. Can he beat Mobileye? I wouldn't discount the possibility, although I think he will need some serious help on the business end of things. Half of all business deals come down to "I [like/don't like] that guy".

Is it true that the laws are made by arseholes and can simply be disregarded by people like him who "live by morals [and] don’t live by laws"? And whose morals get to trump the laws? His? Christian? Islam? Judaic? To say something like that in today's world is the ultimate in being a jerk, at least to me. I mean was James Madison, who wrote the document that formed the model for the Constitution, an arsehole for specifically making the rule of law govern over religion, or the monarchy, or anything else. This is not a trite issue to be callous about. Many people have died, and continue to die every minute of every day, over this very issue.

Of course, there's a ton of things to admire about him, just like there was also a ton of things to admire about Steve Jobs. But it when it comes right down to it, for me at least, it's people's core beliefs and actions towards others (and especially the less fortunate) that define them and ultimately determine their legacy (basically, if they are jerks or not.) There's a lot of very smart people, who are frustrated by the ignorance of the masses, but they still show a humility and caring for others, and don't say their way or the highway, which is the essence of his belief system, if he was quoted correctly in that article. And I don't believe everything I read so perhaps he is a different person. Also, people grow and change. I'm not condemning him by any means. I just read the article differently than others here and I'm not ready to heap praise on him. Hopefully that changes because he's obviously a very special, and highly talented, person.

 

[EVenthusiast]

Well this got Tesla's attention:

Correction to article: "The First Person to Hack the iPhone Built a Self-Driving Car" | Tesla Motors

 

[Lanny]

And it certainly got Mobileye's attention.

Mobileye NV (MBLY) Tumbles as Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Looks to Sign on George Hotz

 

[Chickenlittle]

And it certainly got Mobileye's attention.

Mobileye NV (MBLY) Tumbles as Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Looks to Sign on George Hotz

This was only someone seeking funding. As I posted yesterday no confirmation by tesla nor musk. In fact tesla denies accuracy of article today and doubts he can complete project to accuracy level it requires. Tesla affirmed that they were not leaving Mobil eye

 

[J1mbo]

I read this, very interesting. That Tesla gave responded is also very interesting (IMO they shouldn't have).

Anyway, one thing to bear in mind about Hotz approach is that it is not easily transplantable to other vehicles. The computer is learning how to drive an Acura (with Hotz' driving style), with a fixed sensor suite, and car-specific steering and braking characteristics.

IMO, you cannot consider the learning to be generic enough to be applicable across multiple installations without significant retraining.

 

[Chickenlittle]

I read this, very interesting. That Tesla gave responded is also very interesting (IMO they shouldn't have).

Anyway, one thing to bear in mind about Hotz approach is that it is not easily transplantable to other vehicles. The computer is learning how to drive an Acura (with Hotz' driving style), with a fixed sensor suite, and car-specific steering and braking characteristics.

IMO, you cannot consider the learning to be generic enough to be applicable across multiple installations without significant retraining.

I have to disagree. IMO they should have defended a close partner. If you had listened to last conference call by mobile eye it is clear they are close partners. Wish suppliers of tesla would defend tesla at times

 

[Krugerrand]

I have to disagree. IMO they should have defended a close partner. If you had listened to last conference call by mobile eye it is clear they are close partners. Wish suppliers of tesla would defend tesla at times

Agreed. Tesla must protected itself and its supplier relationships. To do otherwise would be irresponsible and just plain bad business.

 

[J1mbo]

By responding, they are legitimising the article and bringing attention to it.

 

[Krugerrand]

By responding, they are legitimising the article and bringing attention to it.

Please. The article already has attention. But it is an interesting thought that correcting the content of an article and reassuring a business partner that that content is indeed wrong (here's the truth) somehow 'legitimizes' the incorrect content.