Comma.ai drops self-driving device

DETROIT/SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco entrepreneur George Hotz was so confident in his self-driving startup Comma.ai that he had T-shirts made that boldly proclaimed: "We are gonna be so rich." But U.S. federal highway safety officials this week forced Hotz to slam on the brakes, veering into a sudden detour, on the road to those promised riches.

In a letter and order, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) demanded that Comma.ai provide proof to regulators that its proposed device for self-driving cars would be safe, or risk having its sale blocked.

The action is a decisive signal to the rest of Silicon Valley that the days when regulators took a hands-off approach to self-driving car technology are over.

Hotz, in a tweet sent Friday from China, said Comma.ai was redirecting its efforts to "other products and markets." NHTSA and state regulators have been escalating their scrutiny of self-driving car systems and the way they are being tested and used since the death in May of the driver of a Tesla Model S sedan that was operating in so-called "Autopilot" mode.

NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind has said he wants to encourage innovation in autonomous driving because cars that avoid human mistakes could prevent thousands of deaths each year.

But the agency recently released guidelines for self-driving vehicles and systems, indicating its intent to provide more oversight before such systems reach the market.  Hotz did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the order from NHTSA.