Installing Comma.ai / OpenPilot (BlueCruise alternative)

[ArmySapper]

I believe the 12V power exposed on the OBD2 connector should be continuous, uninterrupted and never switched off. This may cause issues with MMEs relatively small 12V battery.

Has anyone experimented with connecting it to 12 volt accessory power that gets automatically switched off? My understanding is the cigarette lighter gets turned off 15 minutes after locking the vehicle.

I can't say this for sure...but I suspect the OBD2 atleast the one in my car does time out because my Comma does boot up like I just plugged in the usb c after it sits overnight. I've never had that happen when I have it plugged into a standard USB C device in the house.

So that's what has led me to my above conclusion....I wouldn't say thats Engineering facts tho.

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[AjzRide]

I can't say this for sure...but I suspect the OBD2 atleast the one in my car does time out because my Comma does boot up like I just plugged in the usb c after it sits overnight. I've never had that happen when I have it plugged into a standard USB C device in the house.

So that's what has led me to my above conclusion....I wouldn't say thats Engineering facts tho.

The ODB2 does not have a timeout, but the comma does have a low-voltage cutoff. So you are probably hitting that.

 

[chariotquant]

In a recent recall Ford implemented a 12 min delay before turning off the HV to 12V (DC to DC converter) after key-off event.

We just have to set the auto-shit-off on the comma to 12 mins

 

[teach42]

Oh, I just remembered one other question I had... Does it work with 1PD? Or do you need to have that disabled for Comma to work?

 

[AjzRide]

Oh, I just remembered one other question I had... Does it work with 1PD? Or do you need to have that disabled for Comma to work?

When ford ACC or Comma ACC is active 1PD is disabled. But MADS (steering without ACC) will work with 1PD.

 

[teach42]

When ford ACC or Comma ACC is active 1PD is disabled. But MADS (steering without ACC) will work with 1PD.

LOL, I swear I never noticed that 1PD was disabled when I had Ford ACC on. I guess as soon as I tap the brake or turn off ACC, it just goes right back to 1PD? If Comma ACC works the same way, that's perfect. I've never even noticed.

 

[AjzRide]

LOL, I swear I never noticed that 1PD was disabled when I had Ford ACC on. I guess as soon as I tap the brake or turn off ACC, it just goes right back to 1PD? If Comma ACC works the same way, that's perfect. I've never even noticed.

ACC is the equivalent of 0PD, it can't coexist with 1PD.

 

[Traveller]

Even busy city streets it will do hands free lane centering and ACC.

I'm curious if BP controls the ACC, or is that handled exclusively by the native ACC? If it is controlled by BP, are there parameters that can be adjusted? I always thought there could be a better handling of visible slowdowns beyond the follow distance in the native ACC to alleviate some of the abrupt breaking that can happen.

I'm hoping to install the C4 tonight so I can start playing with it.

Thanks!

 

[AjzRide]

I'm curious if BP controls the ACC, or is that handled exclusively by the native ACC? If it is controlled by BP, are there parameters that can be adjusted? I always thought there could be a better handling of visible slowdowns beyond the follow distance in the native ACC to alleviate some of the abrupt breaking that can happen.

I'm hoping to install the C4 tonight so I can start playing with it.

Thanks!

A) MAKE SURE you read my write up (linked below) on the ADAS and red lights and traffic jams so you understand the limits of the system.
B) You can select between Ford ACC or OpenPilot Longitudinal Controls. Most people stick with ford ACC because OP Long is very binary. I've been trying to tune the long to be smoother (there are no tuning parameters exposed; you have to do it in code), but it's a tough chore making chicken salad from chicken droppings.

https://bluepilot.dev/2026/02/19/red-lights-traffic-jams-and-adas-limitations/

 

[teach42]

Huge thanks to @AjzRide!! Got it installed this morning, and it was almost disturbing how quickly I was able to knock it out. Was totally prepared for it to be a big chore, and it was uber quick.

Took it for my first drive with OpenPilot and it worked like a dream. Considering my car can't do BlueCruise, this is just amazing. Bonus was on the first drive, I got my 50K pic

Much appreciated for all the assistance and answers!

 

[Traveller]

I'll add another THANK YOU to @AjzRide! I did the install today and it was a piece of cake thanks to his video instructions. I just got back from my first test drive on stock OpenPilot and was really impressed. A few things I noticed:

• It hugs the right lane marker a bit too close. I think this can be adjusted, but I wanted to baseline with bone-stock OP.
• If you break for a stop sign and it disengages OP, you can't just resume from the stop. You have to go over 10 or 15mph before you can resume. Not a big deal, but I thought I read it supports our cars at all speeds down to zero?
• During a few 90-degree corners in neighborhoods that I had to assist with steering, after the turn it would pull too far / hard after the turn was done (in other words, didn't straighten out fast enough). Not sure what that's about but a few mailboxes almost got it...
• REALLY impressed how it handled roads with no lines or snow covered lines.
• Impressed how it moved over to go around a parked car on the side of the road.

I think I'll try out BluePilot later today after I get the rest of the cable tucked away.

Question - Is the process to change over to BluePilot to do a factory rest and then choose the other system option during setup? And if so, am I remembering correctly the way to factory reset is to tap the comma logo on startup like a million times?

Thank you all!

 

[AjzRide]

• It hugs the right lane marker a bit too close. I think this can be adjusted, but I wanted to baseline with bone-stock OP

This can be adjusted on bluepilot, but not in stock OP.

• If you break for a stop sign and it disengages OP, you can't just resume from the stop. You have to go over 10 or 15mph before you can resume. Not a big deal, but I thought I read it supports our cars at all speeds down to zero?

Out of the box, on CANFD fords, the default is ford ACC. To get speeds down to stop you have to enable OP Long. I'm honestly not sure how you do that on the C4. It might be in the developer menu.

• During a few 90-degree corners in neighborhoods that I had to assist with steering, after the turn it would pull too far / hard after the turn was done (in other words, didn't straighten out fast enough). Not sure what that's about but a few mailboxes almost got it...

This is what motivated me to develop and release bluepilot. I put in a PR to comma to fix this, and they rejected it because it wasn't universial, it only worked on fords. Told me to go figure out a universal solution and try again.

Question - Is the process to change over to BluePilot to do a factory rest and then choose the other system option during setup? And if so, am I remembering correctly the way to factory reset is to tap the comma logo on startup like a million times?

Correct, tap the logo during bootup, then reset. After reset, choose custom software and use the bp-c4-basic URL.

I'm not sure if bp-c4-basic has all the fingerprints upstreamed yet, so your vehicle might be unrecognized, but you can pair your device with sunnylink and then use the web site to pick your. vehicle.

 

[Traveller]

Ok - here is a weird one...

On the two drives I've done so far with the Comma 4, Android Auto doesn't seem to connect wirelessly. It works by cable but not wirelessly. That's kind of a big deal for me.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[AjzRide]

Ok - here is a weird one...

On the two drives I've done so far with the Comma 4, Android Auto doesn't seem to connect wirelessly. It works by cable but not wirelessly. That's kind of a big deal for me.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

No clue, never heard of that one before. The APIM is on a different canbus, so it SHOULDN"T be related (but with how sensitive these can networks are who knows). Test it once with the comma unplugged but the harness still installed.

 

[Traveller]

No clue, never heard of that one before. The APIM is on a different canbus, so it SHOULDN"T be related (but with how sensitive these can networks are who knows). Test it once with the comma unplugged but the harness still installed.

I unplugged the Comma and started the car and Android Auto worked wireless. Shut everything down, plugged in the Comma and started it up and no AA... So I cleared the phone info from Sync, and deleted the Mach E from the phone, plus cleared all Android Auto data and cache. After re-pairing the phone and initializing AA, it is now working. Just one of those glitchy things I guess.

I installed BluePilot - love it! Starting to play with some of the settings, but I don't know what 90% of them do, so that'll take some time.

One question - it is running the default model right now. Is there a preferred model for the Mach E?

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