I've had the Comma 3 device installed in my 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe for over two years and nearly 11,000 miles. The self-driving software it runs is called "openpilot," and for most of that time, I've been using a fork called [sunnypilot](https://github.com/sunnypilot/sunnypilot). Two weeks ago, I bought my wife a 2025 Tesla Model Y and subscribed to FSD (Supervised). Here are my first impressions comparing the two self-driving systems and what you can expect from each. ## Highway King vs Nagging Driver The Comma 3 excels at one thing: highways. openpilot is fantastic at keeping you in your lane and maintaining speed. If that's what you want, you'll be thrilled. Much more than that, and you'll be disappointed. Comma has long promised a full self driving experience complete with navigation, traffic light awareness, and 90-degree turns, but it continues to fall short on those counts. They hoped to have released a driving model that "learned e2e in the imagination of a transformer" by November. It's now December, and we're still waiting. That being said, on highways I prefer openpilot to FSD for one main reason: driver monitoring. Tesla's driver monitoring is clunky. They recently removed the requirement of having to hold the steering wheel the whole time, but the driver monitoring they've replaced it with is unpolished. Theoretically it's supposed use the driver-facing camera and take into account several factors (the primary one being your eyes) to determine whether or not the driver is paying attention. If it thinks your attention has strayed, the screen nags you to "apply slight turning force" to the wheel. It's easy to overdo the "turning force" and disengage FSD entirely. Comma's approach is simpler: driver monitoring is based solely on head orientation. Are you looking forward? Great. Are you looking down or rubbernecking too long? Warning is triggered, and simply looking forward again dismisses it. Which actually brings us to another important distinction between FSD and openpilot: what happens when you touch the wheel. Like I mentioned before, applying any significant amount of steering force to the wheel in a Tesla disengages FSD entirely. With the Comma however, you can steer without disengaging, and with sunnypilot, you can even brake. This flexibility is crucial to how much I enjoy using it. ## Comma: No Surprises FSD can be nerve-racking on familiar routes because it occasionally does unexpected things, like stopping in the middle of the road. With openpilot, it’s more predictable. Coming up on a left-turn-only lane? I steer manually without disengaging, and openpilot keeps driving as expected. With openpilot, I always know it’ll stay in its lane and slow for obstacles. With FSD, I generally know what it’ll do, but the unexpected happens and is extremely jarring when it does. ## Tesla: Moonshot Tesla wants to remove the steering wheel entirely—any takeover by the driver is considered a failure. This bold approach of leaping to the final product means it can do some genuinely impressive things: get around slow drivers, park itself, or accelerate like a rocket at green lights. But the confidence with which it undertakes these maneuvers can be misplaced. Comma takes the opposite approach, adding capabilities iteratively. As their "make driving chill" slogan suggests, the last thing they want to do is stress you out. They handle the mundane, leaving you in control of the complexities. If you want the car to make an unprotected left turn, Comma isn't there yet. The ability to set a destination and watch FSD handle everything is incredible, and I hope Elon’s promises of full autonomy come true. For now, though, it’s still hit-and-miss. ## Price: Race to the Bottom FSD peaked at $15,000, but now sells for $8,000, with most opting for the $99/month subscription. Since FSD is non-transferable between vehicles, you'd have to keep the same vehicle for over six years to make buying outright worthwhile. When I bought the Comma 3, it cost $2,000. Last month, you could get the Comma 3X for $1,000 during Black Friday. I suspect Comma has bottomed-out on price, but wouldn't be shocked if the FSD price continued to drop as competitors advance. ## Final Recommendation Comma works with many new car models across most car brands, while FSD is Tesla-exclusive. For most people, Comma isn't the best option—it's the only option. If you own a Tesla, there's still a case for adding a Comma. But for my wife and me, we're still subscribing to FSD. I like monitoring the cutting edge, and FSD has a cool factor that Comma lacks. It's _fun_ watching the screen visualize your surroundings and seeing your car think through challenging situations. Does it feel safe or chill? I think "exciting" is the better term, which is not a trait everyone wants in their self-driving software. The Comma looks and feels like a dev device. It is running open-source software after all. You see a glitchy green line overlaying a camera feed of the lane in front of you, and that's it. Most people looking to add smarts to their car today should just get a Comma. FSD is more for those who want to get a taste of the future that isn't quite here. ## Looking Forward Long-term, I'm more confident in Tesla reaching true autonomy than Comma. The Comma 3 and 3X have 2 front-facing cameras and a single rear-facing camera, all mounted to your windshield. Comma says they could use their rear-facing driver-monitoring camera for side views, but that hasn’t happened, supposedly due to a lack of volunteer data labelers. I have significant doubts whether the rear-facing camera has sufficient coverage to be able to handle all situations. In terms of processing, Comma's hardware is essentially an old smartphone. It's worked so far, but whether it's sufficient for the next level of autonomy has yet to be seen. Tesla, with its HW4 board and full-coverage cameras is clearly better equipped for the vision-only approach. Elon seems confident that true FSD is achievable on HW4, but has begun expressing doubts about HW3, which he previously assured buyers was FSD-capable. HW5 is already in the works. For now, I'm keeping the Comma in my Hyundai and FSD in the Tesla, rooting for both and glad for the competition that is pushing the technology further. ### TL;DR Driving with openpilot is like collaborating with your car. Driving with FSD is like handing control over but having to yank it back occasionally.