Honest review about Comma 3X
I tried comma.ai 3X with both stock OP and Sunnypilot (release 0.9.7) after a month of Use (Toyota RAV4 Hybrid with TSS 2.0).
First and foremost, the lateral performance is crazy good, especially on highways. It inspires full confidence in lane-keeping, and I can practically let the system handle steering without a second thought. For anyone tired of Toyota's lackluster Lane Keep Assist (LKA), the comma.ai 3X with Sunnypilot is a game-changer in this department.
However, longitudinal control is where the system falters, and no setting—be it stock ACC (TSS 2.0), Sunnypilot MADS, experimental, or any tuning from relaxed to aggressive—has been able to fix it. The issues are in my opinion quite significant:
Overly Aggressive Braking on Highways: The system tends to brake dramatically even when the traffic ahead changes speed even slightly, it the initial speed set is too high. This creates a jerky and uncomfortable experience, often forcing me to intervene by either braking or throttling to smooth things out.
Late and Abrupt Braking: When encountering sudden traffic on the highway, the system brakes too late and too harshly, which can be unsettling for passengers and unnerving for the driver.
At slower speeds, especially after a complete stop, the system almost always needs manual assistance to accelerate. This behavior is consistent across both stock OpenPilot and all Sunnypilot modes.
Also, the system has a permanent limitation. it will be always limited by torque steering power of your system. So OTA update won't magically change your car into having capability to steer out sharp curve or a navigation-based full self-driving car, ever. It will stay as highway assist system.
So all in all, at the moment, as a product it feels to me that I'm paying $1000-ish to fix toyota pinball LKA problem, plus some bonus of "alternative tuning of my stock ACC".
I'm reminding myself to manage my own expectation -- but I'm still super excited to try and experiment, and share my experience to friends and families, because comma is developed by a small group of talented dev who is very genuine and do not have much overhead and other non-engineering bs. It feels like supporting fellow friends project. At least I know my $1000 go straight to them and don't go to dealers or marketing campaign middle man or bad company leader.
The feeling is relatable to the first time you showed your friend you stop using Windows for Ubuntu. Who cares if photoshop is 10x better than GIMP. I use Ubuntu, I rock!