Any Comma.ai OpenPilot users here?

OP
OP

JMZ

Member
First Name
John
Joined
Feb 25, 2025
Threads
6
Messages
19
Reaction score
9
Location
Bay Area, CA
Vehicles
2025 Mach E AWD, 2025 Model Y AWD
Occupation
software / firmware engineer
Hello, all ...

So, I finally got the Comma 3x installed in my '22 Mach E GTPE. However, both OpenPilot and BluePilot just show the dreaded dashcam mode car unrecognized error. Also, my Mach E complains mightily after installing the Comma - 1-pedal drive fault, front lighting fault, blind spot fault, service atrac fault, pre-collision assistance fault, cross traffic fault, driver-should-shower-more-often fault (ok, maybe not that last one), etc. I don't think it's the harness, because the car wasn't complaining until I actually attached the Comma 3x itself (the harness was installed earlier and everything was fine but I needed a USB adapter, which just arrived today, to plug the Comma itself in).

Thoughts? It acts as if the USB-C cable isn't allowing communications, and only delivering power. The cable is the one that came with the Comma 3X, though, and the extender I purchased (because the IPMA is all the way in the bleepin' back of the Mach E) is USB-C 3.1 and rated for 20gb/s.

Regards,

John
 
Last edited:

AjzRide

Well-Known Member
First Name
Alan
Joined
May 1, 2021
Threads
8
Messages
365
Reaction score
541
Location
Houston
Vehicles
RR 2021 MME Premium RWD
Occupation
Eng
Country flag
Hello, all ...

So, I finally got the Comma 3x installed in my '22 Mach E GTPE. However, both OpenPilot and BluePilot just show the dreaded dashcam mode car unrecognized error. Also, my Mach E complains mightily after installing the Comma - 1-pedal drive fault, front lighting fault, blind spot fault, service atrac fault, pre-collision assistance fault, cross traffic fault, driver-should-shower-more-often fault (ok, maybe not that last one), etc. I don't think it's the harness, because the car wasn't complaining until I actually attached the Comma 3x itself (the harness was installed earlier and everything was fine but I needed a USB adapter, which just arrived today, to plug the Comma itself in).

Thoughts?

Regards,

John
when using BluePilot you need to select your vehicle from the menu. The faults occur because the comma isn’t transmitting canbus data, which should be happening. Forcing the fingerprint might help, or it might not. But let’s get the car recognized and see what the next step is.

menu —> vehicle —> select your vehicle (upper right)

which version of BluePilot are you on?
 
OP
OP

JMZ

Member
First Name
John
Joined
Feb 25, 2025
Threads
6
Messages
19
Reaction score
9
Location
Bay Area, CA
Vehicles
2025 Mach E AWD, 2025 Model Y AWD
Occupation
software / firmware engineer
Alan,

I'm on bp-3.0. Selecting my car did get me farther - it calibrated at least. However, whenever I try to activate it by pressing the BlueCruise button, it says "Cruise fault: Restart the car to engage." This continues to appear even after restarting the car 3 times.

Regards,

John
 


AjzRide

Well-Known Member
First Name
Alan
Joined
May 1, 2021
Threads
8
Messages
365
Reaction score
541
Location
Houston
Vehicles
RR 2021 MME Premium RWD
Occupation
Eng
Country flag
Alan,

I'm on bp-3.0. Selecting my car did get me farther - it calibrated at least. However, whenever I try to activate it by pressing the BlueCruise button, it says "Cruise fault: Restart the car to engage." This continues to appear even after restarting the car 3x.

Regards,

John
I'll send you a DM on how to add me into your device as a read-only user so I can look at the logs.

Just to be sure, you are plugged into the black plug on the IPMA?

 
OP
OP

JMZ

Member
First Name
John
Joined
Feb 25, 2025
Threads
6
Messages
19
Reaction score
9
Location
Bay Area, CA
Vehicles
2025 Mach E AWD, 2025 Model Y AWD
Occupation
software / firmware engineer
Yes, I did. I made sure of that after reading of another user's travails after plugging it into the wrong port.
 

Mach-Lee

Well-Known Member
First Name
Lee
Joined
Jul 16, 2021
Threads
262
Messages
11,344
Reaction score
24,964
Location
Wisconsin
Vehicles
2022 Mach-E Premium AWD
Occupation
Sci/Eng
Country flag
FWIW I helped a friend install comma 3X in his Rivian today, and we spent a lot of time test driving it and comparing it to both BlueCruise and Driver+. I've been wanting to try this comma thing for a while. The Rivian install was very plug and play, openpilot supported the vehicle right out of the box. Calibration speed was astonishing, it was fully calibrated before we could even get out of his neighborhood to a road with lines. It calibrated based on concrete seams alone. The hardest part of the install was getting the harness plugged in under the dash.

Only Rivian steering control is supported in openpilot, no longitudinal control (the stock Rivian adaptive cruise is used). Driver+ is disabled in favor of hands-free comma control that works on every road instead of just highways. Hands-free everywhere is a major benefit of installing one of these.

The lane centering is much superior to both Driver+ and BlueCruise. Virtually no dropouts, only on the most extreme curves must you take over. It handled about a dozen areas where Ford lane centering always “cancels” perfectly with zero drama. Ford gets shaky and unsure when there’s an intersection without lines or with complicated markings, openpilot just smoothly takes the most likely path (which is usually correct). Hands-free lane centering even works on roads without lines! The lane centering itself was surprisingly….human. It moves over to the inside on curves (just like most people do) and sort of kisses the line without going over on sharper turns. I could almost swear it was mimicking the path the car in front of us took sometimes. Overall very smooth, really no steering jerkiness to speak of. My only gripe is I wished it was just a tad bit more aggressive with the lane centering because it was a bit lazy at times, almost too human.

The device also supports assisted lane changes on the Rivian. You tap the turn signal, look if the lane is clear, then tug the wheel the direction you want to go, let go, and it will very smoothly move you over into the next lane. It can't access the radar sensors, so you have to make sure the lane is clear yourself. But the lane change itself is very good, and smoother than BlueCruise 1.3 (BC is more abrupt with the start and end of the lane change compared to this). Again very human.

The comma 3X has a rear facing camera for driver monitoring. It is very unobtrusive compared to BlueCruise driver monitoring. The time before it starts warning you is significantly longer, which is actually appreciated for looking at the map on the screen or changing the radio station (Ford's eye nanny really needs to be a couple seconds longer). And obviously no "hands on wheel" nanny since it's hands-free all the time.

The software is so advanced, it can even steer around parked cars and pedestrians in the road. That really impressed me. I hear it may also stop for stop signs and lights in experimental mode, so there is a lot of potential in the software.

From the Rivian perspective, the major benefit is enabling lane centering everywhere (which we sort of have already) and hands-free driving (which gen 1 Rivians don't support). It also enables cooperative steering with lane centering engaged (which Ford has but Rivian/Tesla do not). The downside is it still uses Rivian adaptive cruise speed control out of the box, which is jerky and dumb in situations where you come up on slowing cars, follow them in a sharp turn, or have one change lanes in front of you. But there are software forks that allow enabling of longitudinal speed control, which will make the following and speed control much better than stock Rivian.

For a Ford owner, I think the value proposition is a lot less if you already have active BlueCruise. Comma will give you smoother and better lane centering that works hands-free everywhere if that's important to you (BlueCruise dropouts will be a thing of the past). But if your BlueCruise is expired and you are going to keep the car for at least a couple more years, buying a comma 3X for $1100 is probably a better value than buying a $500 BlueCruise subscription for two years.

I'm not 100% sure if comma will work out of the box in "chill mode" on Mach-E without a software fork, but I'm glad this option exists as an alternative to being locked into Ford's ecosystem of software that doesn't get updated or fixed. Unfortunately this is a very "disruptive" product, and many automakers like Ford and Rivian are already taking steps to encrypt their CAN busses to prevent its use (sorry 2025+ owners).
 
Last edited:

AjzRide

Well-Known Member
First Name
Alan
Joined
May 1, 2021
Threads
8
Messages
365
Reaction score
541
Location
Houston
Vehicles
RR 2021 MME Premium RWD
Occupation
Eng
Country flag
FWIW I helped a friend install comma 3X in his Rivian today, and we spent a lot of time test driving it and comparing it to both BlueCruise and Driver+. I've been wanting to try this comma thing for a while. The Rivian install was very plug and play, openpilot supported the vehicle right out of the box. Calibration speed was astonishing, it was fully calibrated before we could even get out of his neighborhood to a road with lines. It calibrated based on concrete seams alone. The hardest part of the install was getting the harness plugged in under the dash.

Only Rivian steering control is supported in openpilot, no longitudinal control (the stock Rivian adaptive cruise is used). Driver+ is disabled in favor of hands-free comma control that works on every road instead of just highways. Hands-free everywhere is a major benefit of installing one of these.

The lane centering is much superior to both Driver+ and BlueCruise. Virtually no dropouts, only on the most extreme curves must you take over. It handled about a dozen areas where Ford lane centering always “cancels” perfectly with zero drama. Ford gets shaky and unsure when there’s an intersection without lines or with complicated markings, openpilot just smoothly takes the most likely path (which is usually correct). Hands-free lane centering even works on roads without lines! The lane centering itself was surprisingly….human. It moves over to the inside on curves (just like most people do) and sort of kisses the line without going over on sharper turns. I could almost swear it was mimicking the path the car in front of us took sometimes. Overall very smooth, really no steering jerkiness to speak of. My only gripe is I wished it was just a tad bit more aggressive with the lane centering because it was a bit lazy at times, almost too human.

The device also supports assisted lane changes on the Rivian. You tap the turn signal, look if the lane is clear, then tug the wheel the direction you want to go, let go, and it will very smoothly move you over into the next lane. It can't access the radar sensors, so you have to make sure the lane is clear yourself. But the lane change itself is very good, and smoother than BlueCruise 1.3 (BC is more abrupt with the start and end of the lane change compared to this). Again very human.

The comma 3X has a rear facing camera for driver monitoring. It is very unobtrusive compared to BlueCruise driver monitoring. The time before it starts warning you is significantly longer, which is actually appreciated for looking at the map on the screen or changing the radio station (Ford's eye nanny really needs to be a couple seconds longer). And obviously no "hands on wheel" nanny since it's hands-free all the time.

The software is so advanced, it can even steer around parked cars and pedestrians in the road. That really impressed me. I hear it may also stop for stop signs and lights in experimental mode, so there is a lot of potential in the software.

From the Rivian perspective, the major benefit is enabling lane centering everywhere (which we sort of have already) and hands-free driving (which gen 1 Rivians don't support). It also enables cooperative steering with lane centering engaged (which Ford has but Rivian/Tesla do not). The downside is it still uses Rivian adaptive cruise speed control out of the box, which is jerky and dumb in situations where you come up on slowing cars, follow them in a sharp turn, or have one change lanes in front of you. But there are software forks that allow enabling of longitudinal speed control, which will make the following and speed control much better than stock Rivian.

For a Ford owner, I think the value proposition is a lot less if you already have active BlueCruise. Comma will give you smoother and better lane centering that works hands-free everywhere if that's important to you (BlueCruise dropouts will be a thing of the past). But if your BlueCruise is expired and you are going to keep the car for at least a couple more years, buying a comma 3X for $1100 is probably a better value than buying a $500 BlueCruise subscription for two years.

I'm not 100% sure if comma will work out of the box in "chill mode" on Mach-E without a software fork, but I'm glad this option exists as an alternative to being locked into Ford's ecosystem of software that doesn't get updated or fixed. Unfortunately this is a very "disruptive" product, and many automakers like Ford and Rivian are already taking steps to encrypt their CAN busses to prevent its use (sorry 2025+ owners).

You can see my initial impressions for a side-by-side comparison with BC1.4 here:

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/thr...ecruise-alternative.19342/page-33#post-421452
 

XGC75

Active Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2025
Threads
1
Messages
37
Reaction score
37
Location
Michigan
Vehicles
2021 Genesis G70
My 2c based on Bluecruise 1.4 in my '24 and a comma 2 running Open Pilot on a Genesis G70.

I just had a long (800mi) road trip with BC 1.4. All highway. My notes:
  • BC can't handle curves that OP can. OP will max the steering wheel torque and only warn you when it can't reach its desired path.
  • BC disables when the sun is shining on the camera. In adverse visibility with OP on the comma 2 I would depend on the comma to keep the lane while I tried to focus on coming obstacles. This is true not only for blinding sunlight but also rain and snow. As always, don't oversoeed the conditions.
  • BC bounces more than OP. As said OP is very natural keeping a lane. BC will use tar snakes, concrete seams and older faded lines as lane lines while OP will reliably choose the best indicator possible.
  • BC disables in construction zones often. OP never disables, which is both a testament to the technology and a warning to drivers that it can make you too complacent.
 

AjzRide

Well-Known Member
First Name
Alan
Joined
May 1, 2021
Threads
8
Messages
365
Reaction score
541
Location
Houston
Vehicles
RR 2021 MME Premium RWD
Occupation
Eng
Country flag
Reposting from the F150 Forum for those on the MachE forum who are new to the topic:
=============================================================

I wanted to take a minute and reset this thread (and expectations). There has been a lot of talk lately about the potential with a Comma3X and all of the "Full Self Driving" features they are working. Stop light recognition, speed limit adjustments, turn by turn navigation... all off that is awesome and will one day here, but the title of this thread includes "BlueCruise alternative" and so I wanted to bring it back to that for a minute and discuss what kind of alternative it really provides.

I took an 8 hour road trip yesterday and decided to put the Comma in "BC replacement mode" ie, only using SunnyPilot lateral controls (including touchless lane change), no experimental, Ford stock ACC, and see how well it really performed. I thought about making a video of the drive, but who wants to watch an 8 hour video. By time I sped it up enough that someone would actually watch it, it would be moving so fast you wouldn't be able to see my hands.

After I trashed that idea, the engineer in me took over and said the solution is graphics and bullet points. In addition to controlling our trucks, the Comma3X records every signal on the canbus and dash cam footage of the drives. Using some linux tools, we can access all of that data. Unfortunately the comma only holds about 4 hours of data (need to work on external storage), so I didn't have a full 8 hour windows to show off, but I pulled the longest single segment I had available to analyze. Below are some trends for a leg from Baytown, TX to Hammond, LA. I filled up with gas in Baytown and stopped for dinner in Hammond. I trimmed off the first and last 10 minutes of the leg because those were not interstate travel related.

The graph below is for 233 minutes of travel (Almost 4 full hours)

Travel Speed (I was moving pretty darned fast, speed limit is 75mph for a good portion of this leg):
Ford Mustang Mach-E Any Comma.ai OpenPilot users here? Speed



Blinker Status (You can't move that fast and camp out in the right lane, I had to change lanes a bunch):
Ford Mustang Mach-E Any Comma.ai OpenPilot users here? Blinker


Wheel Touches (we have this signal from the nanny to keep hands on the wheel)
Ford Mustang Mach-E Any Comma.ai OpenPilot users here? Steering Wheel


Some statistics:
  • Number of wheel touches: 13, coming in bunches.
    • First group: Aggressive driving to get around two nimrods racing at 55 mph in the left two lanes (75mph zone)
    • Second group: Construction zone with very aggressive lane shifts. The old lane markings not being erased and new lane markings dropped right on top of them. There was also a touch or two in this group related to passing an 18 wheeler that was swaying, and there were no shoulders on left or right
    • Third group (only 1 touch): Had to quickly brake (disables open pilot for me) and let an 18 wheeler into the left lane due to a trooper writing a ticket on the right shoulder
    • Fourth group: Crossing the Mississippi River and navigating the I-10 / I-110 exchange. 15 years of crossing this bridge has taught me that 97% of the drivers in Baton Rouge lack the intelligence to pull this off. I wasn't even going to let OP try, not at 5:06 in the afternoon.
  • Total time touching wheel: 153 seconds out of 13,980 seconds of driving (1.09% of the drive my hands were on the wheel)
  • Longest time between touches: 96 minutes

Just wanted to get this out there so someone who is coming along new doesn't get overwhelmed with all of the experimental features being talked about and think this might not be for them, when all they really want is what they expected when they plopped down the coin for a blue cruise capable truck.
 
OP
OP

JMZ

Member
First Name
John
Joined
Feb 25, 2025
Threads
6
Messages
19
Reaction score
9
Location
Bay Area, CA
Vehicles
2025 Mach E AWD, 2025 Model Y AWD
Occupation
software / firmware engineer
Hey all,

Today I traded in my 2022 GT PE on a 2025 EAWD. I was pleasantly surprised that the suspension didn't seem anywhere near as bouncy as others have reported for the non-MagnaRide Mach Es. Did Ford address the suspension issues sometime between 2022 and present?

Also, apparently my Comma 3X won't work on the 2025 Mach E, due I suspect to CAN traffic being encrypted. Is this true? I've read about OpenPilot being able to work around encrypted CAN traffic on other vehicles. Does BluePilot do this i.e. will BluePilot work on the 2025?

Regards,

John
 

AjzRide

Well-Known Member
First Name
Alan
Joined
May 1, 2021
Threads
8
Messages
365
Reaction score
541
Location
Houston
Vehicles
RR 2021 MME Premium RWD
Occupation
Eng
Country flag
Hey all,

Also, apparently my Comma 3X won't work on the 2025 Mach E, due I suspect to CAN traffic being encrypted. Is this true? I've read about OpenPilot being able to work around encrypted CAN traffic on other vehicles. Does BluePilot do this i.e. will BluePilot work on the 2025?

Regards,

John
There are no work arounds for Ford encryption yet. It is far more sophisticated than the Toyota encryption.

The 2025 MachE is not compatible and there is no breakthrough in sight.
Sponsored

 
 







Top