Overview
- NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary probe Monday after five reported crashes involving Comma.ai devices, two of which produced three deaths and left 11 people injured in other incidents.
- Agency review found the Comma systems were powered on or engaged in multiple crashes and said preliminary data suggests the software may not have detected or reacted to slow or stopped vehicles in the same lane.
- At least one fatal crash from February 2026 involved a 2022 Toyota RAV4 running FrogPilot, a third‑party fork of Comma.ai’s openpilot, highlighting forks and user modifications in several of the incidents.
- Comma.ai has complied with NHTSA’s reporting requirements but disputes how the agency’s Standing General Order applies when vehicles run forked third‑party code, which the company says limits its ability to control or update every build.
- The probe raises novel enforcement questions because openpilot is open‑source and widely forked, and it follows past NHTSA reviews of Level‑2 systems that have trouble spotting stationary vehicles and rely on an attentive human driver.