Geohot, the first person to hack the iPhone, has built a self-driving car using off the shelf electronics

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 17 Dec 2015

Geohot

Remember Geohot? The 17-year old kid who was the first person to hack the iPhone? The same kid who then went on to crack open the PlayStation 3’s DRM system and then went on to work at Google in 2014. Well, after staying away from the limelight for the 1.5 years, Geohot is finally back to show his latest project: a self-driving car.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Geohot says that he has been able to create a self-driving car in just about a month. He used his white 2016 Acura ILX as the guinea pig and modified it to include a laser-based radar system, a bunch of cameras at the front and rear, a joystick and a 21.5-inch screen at the centre of the dashboard. The glovebox acts as a computing hub and houses a mini PC with a networking switch and GPS sensors.

Geohot Self Driving car

Hotz is so confident of his self-driving AI that he goes on to say that Mobileye’s technology, the company that supplies Google, Uber, Tesla and other major automakers with self-driving assisting technology, is “behind the times, and they have not caught up.” He even says that whatever Mobileye has achieved by investing in costly hardware can be done by investing in cheaper consumer-grade hardware since over the last few years they have become good enough for such purposes.

Hotz plans on proving his words true and is building a package using consumer grade electronics that will be be better than that of Mobileye. He plans on selling the camera and software package for $1000 apiece to automakers or interested consumers who can get it fitted into their vehicle through a showroom run by him. Hotz also plans on releasing a YouTube video in a few months from now where he will show his self-driving Acura ILX beat the Tesla Model S on Interstate 405 in Los Angeles. He wants to do this to get the attention of the world and other automakers and also win a bet with Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk.

George Hotz is angry with Elon Musk since the latter first offered him a job offer but he jerked around with him for three months. Hotz now says that he is ready to sell his technology to Tesla for double of what he will be charging others.

Make sure to head over to the source link below and read the full interview since it makes for a very fascinating read.

[Via Bloomberg]