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What is Open Pilot?

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My brother had gone this route before completely retrofitting AP to his 2012.

I'm curious as to if this will eventually be able to offer FSD capabilities for AP1 cars, or if additional hardware would be necessary.

He may want to try it out again if he still has his parts. We have people looking to switch over from AP1, and should have it working in near future. It should be pretty much plug and play with AP1 cars.
 
Yes. The project will be active for a long time. I will be using it until I have something better to drive my car.

Just finished a short weekend road trip. Will be posting some details soon. Lots of updates in the new model with release .6. I have not been posting much since I’ve been busy working with the team to tune the steering responses. There has been lots of really good changes.

Always join our discord for the latest updates.
 
Hi rooter. We are working on adding ap1 cars for support. There are advantages. 1st our updates focus on better driving. I feel our speed control is much smoother than ap1. Especially when approaching slower cars. We have a few people who have ap1 and op on another car. And they are very motivated to get op so I think that speaks volumes. Join our discord.
 
There was also a question about FSD. I don’t think op will offer fsd anytime in the near future.

The older cars lack a lot of sensory hardware for fsd. However since these cars were not even ap1 capable and already driving better than ap1 in some ways. I would not say it’s not possible. But we do need people with the knowledge, resources, and motivation to develop it.
 
Sorry, my train of thought has been totally lost and not sure where to start. There is so much updates recently, and I've also been super busy.

For summary, OP .6.2 release is out. This has been a HUGE update for us. Starting with .6 a new model came out, and it's bigger. This allows more road to be seen by the AI driving the car. In return this allows for much bigger turns to be successfully. The new abilities with sharper turns are amazing. Most clover leaf and highway entrances are easily driven with OP now.

I also have a 2018 Nissan Maxima rental I'm driving for a little bit. It only has Dynamic Cruse Control. But it's really smooth, I have to manually resume after more than 1 second of full stop, but it is so nice in traffic! This has been the best factory dynamic CC I've used to date! This really motivates me to do the iBooster upgrade and get radar into my car. Having this stop and go ability with the current lane control will be total driving bliss!

Feel free to ask questions as I'm so scattered and can put my though down...

If your in SoCal, feel free to pm me if you want a demo ride.
 
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I'm one of the developers of the Tesla OpenPilot fork and figured I'd throw in my 2 cents.

He may want to try it out again if he still has his parts. We have people looking to switch over from AP1, and should have it working in near future. It should be pretty much plug and play with AP1 cars.

Please note that, AP1 Support is not yet available. I estimate it being about 6 months away. So "Soon" is relative.

Biggest issue is finding an AP1 car to work on, as currently both me and the other dev working on it do not have an iBooster installed (yet). we haven't fully reverse engineered the iBooster/DI/DAS negotiation for longitudinal control.

If you are a developer and want to work on AP1 support, please PM me!

Here's how OpenPilot currently compares for Non-AP cars:

Steering:

on par with AP1/AP2+ when it comes to actually driving and following the road. But allows for seamless pass-through between driver control and OP control without full disenagagement. OP will take over once your hands are off the wheel again.

Longitudinal Control:

OP is much worse than AP1/AP2+ when it comes to longitudinal control. This is for two reasons, stock Tesla cruise control is awful and we don't have electronically controlled friction brakes.

The first issue has been 100% fixed with additional hardware (takes about 5 minutes to install) which emulates pressing the throttle pedal instead of using the cruise control system. This allows OP to actually operate much smoother than even the AP1/AP2+ ACC at highway speeds and would make OP better than AP if it weren't for the second issue.

The second issue, we don't have control of the friction brakes, only the regenerative brakes. Thus, we dont have AEB, we can't do stop and go traffic, and sometimes the driver needs to step on the brake pedal.

Retrofitting an iBooster, while possible, is a big job. You have to replace all the wheel sensors, ESP system, and brake system and modify the car harnesses, So I doubt many Non-AP users would do that.

Additionally, you can retrofit a radar module as well, (this is fairly simple) and get more accurate ACC controls versus the vision-only solution, but it is very much not required.

We use the maps that are built into tesla as wel, so we have localization speed controls like AP has when going around turns and such as well.

Driver awareness:

OpenPilot is superior to AP1/AP2+ for driver awareness. We use a camera facing the driver to determine if they are paying attention versus just sensing torque on the wheel. This means that you do NOT have to have your hands on the wheel when you use openpilot, but you do need to be more attentive.

Integration:

OpenPilot can fully integrate into the Tesla CID/IC UI if you have root, it'll look like AP1. While the AP2 view is also possible, it's kind of pointless since OP can only see ahead.


We have automatic lane changing.. but recently disabled it temporarily. We aren't happy with its performance. while it is aware of ultrasonic sensor data, it does not use them, so you have to check yourself.

Future updates list:
  • implementing navigate-on-openpilot, it'll be almost the same implementation that Tesla currently uses - driving off the road curvature data when taking exists.
  • Using ultrasonic sensors to correct lane position when someone is close (not sure how good this will be for 8-sensor cars)
  • supporting the iBooster controls for those who have one
  • developing an AP1 Giraffe & AP1 support
  • Futher improvements to long control



Any advantage over stock 8.1 for AP1 which {cough} someone rooted?

What's required, and what's the mechanism to change over?

root?

When you notice I'm the developer of this you will probably run, but anyway..

It will require no permanent hardware modifications. Parts will consist of buying an EON (or building a FreEon), Panda (white/grey, doesn't matter), and the unreleased AP1 Giraffe. You will be able to easily switch between AP1 and OP at any time using a Toggle on the CID or EON.

Installation will be simple:

1. Unplug the wire going into the DAS
2. Plug that wire into the corresponding female cable the Giraffe
3. Plug the giraffe's male version of that cable into the DAS.
4. Plug Panda into Giraffe
5. Mount Eon
6. Plug Eon into Panda

And you are done.
 
Thanks to TonyT for introducing me to OP. I began my installation approximately two months ago. I have a July built 2013 model s85. I have installed the self steering control cables and I’m currently working on adding “pedal” (a more refine automatic acceleration control system than the default cruise control) and radar (so that forward vehicle separation be better than what is available with the visual camera). I still haven’t upgraded to OP 6.2 (I’m on 6.0) nor I have IC integration.

So what do I think of my OP and what do I want from it once I complete the installation.

I think OP is amazing. Currently I allow OP to steer the car while I keep control of the accelerator and the brakes. The visual ACC is adequate but it defaults to 2.5s or greater forward separation. In the environment that I drive, that is unusable. Last week I took a friend that owns a Model 3 for a drive on both country roads and city highways. He was amazed, he said that the fidelity of the steering control was better than the model 3.

Once I finish my full installation, I want OP to be able to safely control the car in bumper to bumper traffic and in the interstate . I have no intention of installing iBoost brakes, my regen braking is good enough for most of my needs, plus I’m still responsible for the braking. I don’t want OP to change lanes nor automatically navigate. Without side and rear sensors, that would not be safe. So for me OP its like adding AP 0.75 to my car.

I encourage all pre AP owners to join the Tesla community in the Discord App and learn about OP. Installation requires some mechanical and computer skills, but all within the reach of most DIY persons. If I can do this, you can too!!!
 
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Howdy yall, I have OP on my 2013 P85 also. I'll just tell you even the base configuration is mind boggling. Back when I bought the car in early 2017 I had no clue something like this existed or could be done. I had decided at that time that autopilot would come in my next car. Thanks to the folks working on OP, I don't have to wait, and now I'm planning on keeping my car for years.

I have lane keeping, ACC, and ALCA. (No root yet which enables IC integration). Several people don't use ALCA but I use it daily! I use OP for 90% of my morning drive, and for afternoon it depends on what route I take. It can be 60-80% in one of the directions.

The important thing to remember is that this is DAS. This is not an autonomous driving system. If you tell people you have a cell phone driving your car they'll think it's unsafe. It's a safety enhancement system, they'll understand that. In esssence, you're still the driver. Just watch the road and make sure your car doesn't make mistakes. Treat it like you're an overbearing backseat driver. It makes your car safer by warning you about collisions, keeping you in your lane, slowing down, etc. The best part: you only need to watch the road (the EON has a camera that watches to see if you pay attention). I rest my arms on the arm rests, not the wheel! Priceless.

Currently have a Pedal and radar ready to go in.
Long term goal: install ibooster. Since my goal is to make the car safer, I eventually want AEB, which needs an ibooster.

Time commitment: almost none. I'm at a point in my life where I have no free minutes during the day unfortunately. The base configuration takes an hour or so to install. If you need help with the EPAS cable installation or assembly, feel free to ask me; it's one of the things I can help with. We made a Google doc with detailed instructions. Also DeftDawg made a good video on it.

In summary, mind: blown.
 
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Also please don't just add this to your Tesla without joining the group. For safety reasons we need to be in contact with you in the event that Tesla updates change CAN messages. This has actually happened in the past. If you are in areas that don't "allow" use but want to, still talk to us first. We can figure out a way to keep you informed.
 
I just joined the Openpilot club this morning with my 2013 S85. Talk about an update/upgrade, I feel like my 6 y/o car is brand new! A couple of months ago when my brother bought his Model S I was doing some deep soul searching about a possible trade to get into a car that had autopilot, but not anymore. It took me a few weeks to order up all of the parts and about a day or so to get it all in and working no rush.

Openpilot is fantastic and I just have the base config. It's not 100% plug and play yet, but not to far away either. The community on discord is there to help if you hit a bump along the way.

Openpilot is so good I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Tesla without AP. If your near me and would like to check it out shoot me a PM.
 
My understanding is that OpenPilot is also adding sentry mode soon, and that you can use the EON as a connected dashcam as well with the new Prime plan, which is $14/mo. Correct?

I have not heard about sentry mode, the eon is sensitive to heat if left in car if car is allowed to bake in the sun. There is a Prime plan which gives connectivity and extended storage. I don't know the cost since I don't use that.
 
Monday this week I ate breakfast on the way to work. Normally don't allow eating in my car, but I was starving, running late, and wanted to conduct an experiment. So I put her in the right lane, set the ACC and LKA and ate my sandwich :)
I got one nag to look at the road because i was oggling my sandwich and coffee too much. You can't do that on Tesla' s AP.
 
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Some more updates. OP is on release .6.3 now. since .6 the model has gotten bigger and better enabling OP to do better turns. Now I regularly take cloverleaf turns from highway to highway in the interchanges, what this means is if I'm in the right lane and the markings are good with turn only lanes, I can go totally automated. I do have to keep an eye on the merger at the end of the change as currently has nothing to detect sides and would not know if it were to merge into a car. As long as coast is clear I let OP do it's thing. And it is doing it well.

Finally the service center came through for me, and I got my AP1 car duct with radar mount. So I was able to add radar to my car for OP use. I'm no longer limited to tracking 1 car in front of me. Based on the beam of the radar, I can track up to 32 objects now. With very great precision and accuracy. This means that even without my ibooster, OP can control speed very well following cars, and slowing down if cars cut in. Follow distance in much improved! Did some very good testing in crawling traffic. Stop and go still requires help as my car can not come to a complete stop on it's own. Also rapid stops need assistance, since OP can only stop with regen, so if you need to press the brake for a certain stop, OP needs you to press the brakes when your using it in traffic. Hopefully I'll be doing the ibooster mod soon.

Parking sensors have been installed on the rear of the car, and I plan to do the front soon. I discovered my car is completely missing all the wiring and connectors for parking sensors. This is gonna be fun, I will have to run all of it. The kicker is every car I've looked at has most of the wiring in place.... Argh...
 
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