Every year, tens of thousands of people gather here in the Mojave Desert with two goals: to see some incredible off-road racing and to lose their minds in the kind of unbridled debauchery their mothers always warned them about. 

King of the Hammers is often described as “Burning Man for rednecks,” and while the drug of choice is usually Coors Light and the cars are valued for performance rather than artistic sensibilities, the description works. This year, nearly 80,000 people came to the camping area on Means Dry Lake, drawn by the promise of friends, fuel, and two weeks of dirt-slinging, rock-spewing, mind-blowing racing.

While some folks are familiar with off-road races like the Baja 1000 or the Dakar Rally, King of the Hammers is completely different. The rigs have to be able to conquer a high-speed desert section — usually that means independent front suspension and plenty of horsepower — but they also need to defy physics in the rock-crawling sections. A solid axle in the front and plenty of torque is a necessity. 

The difficulty of the rock sections is legendary. Boulders the size of a Mini Cooper are scattered throughout a narrow valley. Some are embedded in the ground, and others move when you put weight on them, which happens often. King of the Hammers competitors relish these rocks. They live for them. The rocks are their reason for being.

Race cars can’t just change their front-end suspension for each section, so it’s up to the MacGyver-like minds of the fabricators to either make independent front suspension work well in the rocks or engineer a solid front axle that can speed through the desert. 

I’ve been to King of the Hammers at least five times — as a spectator, staff member, and this year, as a competitor — but the thrill never diminishes. What started as a group of pals who put a case of beer on the line for the person who could run all the incredibly difficult rock-crawler trails in one day has morphed into a two-week off-road racing extravaganza with motorcycles, desert cars, UTVs, and unlimited rock crawlers with 40-inch tires and an abundance of horsepower.

Over 1,000 competitors take the green flag to battle some of the toughest terrain in North America. Most will fail, but there is honor to those that finish and glory to those that win.

But it’s not just the racing, and frankly, it’s not just the extracurricular events that happen around the Hammers. Every year, I take away some key lessons from KOH that I can apply in my everyday life. It might be hokey, finding inspiration in a two-week racing party, but what can I say? I’m a sentimental gal.

The races

The first four-wheeled race took place on the only-on-the-desert sections, and I’m proud to say that your humble author took the green starting flag in her lifted Miata named Buddy. I’ve raced plenty out here but always in a car that was built for the desert, not in a freaking Miata. Amid a sea of trucks three times my size, I piloted Buddy through rough and sandy sections alike. Did I think I was going to die? Yes, multiple times. But I got Buddy around the track in one piece to the slack-jawed amazement of more than one spectator. 

It was Christopher Polvoorde in a 1,000-horsepower Mason Motorsports AWD truck who eventually ran the quickest race, finishing about two hours faster than I did. While I didn’t win any trophies, Buddy the Off-Road Miata certainly won the hearts of plenty of off-road fans that day. 

Expect the unexpected. That’s Hammers.

After a few days of qualifying sessions, the UTVs set off around the course, encountering both high-speed desert running and rock crawling. And they had to do it in the rain thanks to the atmospheric river that attacked California in February. Although Kyle Chaney made short work of Johnson Valley, earning his fourth first-place finish in the event, third-place finisher Phil Blurton really had a good time.

“A mile into the race, I had my visor up, and we barrel-rolled the car, and I got a face full of dirt. We landed on all fours and never let off and kept going,” said Blurton.

Persevere. That’s Hammers.

Next up, the Every Man Challenge, where the self-funded grassroots teams get their chance to shine. This year, Keith and Melissa Silva defied convention in their garage-built electric rock crawler, a combination of Chevrolet S-10 and Tesla Model S. Last year, they were not able to complete a full lap, but this year, thanks to a better battery management system, they earned first place in the EV class.

Sure, they were a class of one, and their lap was shorter than other classes, but bringing a fully electric rock crawler with 37-inch tires across the finish line is an accomplishment, especially when you consider that over 100 competitors were not able to complete the race. 

When I asked them why they torture themselves with the extra complexity of running an EV, Melissa replied, “How easy is it to put an LS motor in and do what everyone else is doing? Nobody is pushing the boundaries. Somebody has to do it and I would rather it be a single team.”

While it was Randy Slawson who took top spot on the podium in the Every Man Challenge, despite having to drive 10 miles on two flat tires to reach his team in his pits for help, the Silvas took the crown for not taking the easy way out.

Do it the hard way. That’s Hammers.

Finally, the Race of Kings brought the whole event to a close. This is the most popular race, with vehicles completely unlimited in terms of power, suspension, and tire size. If you can build it, you can race it. While it runs the same course as the other races, these competitors have to race the rock section twice. 

Out of 105 starters, only 40 finished. One competitor lost their steering rack a mere 0.7 miles into the race. Two racers got tangled together when one tried to drive over the other. Another team was all set to win but lost their transmission mere miles before the finish line. In a feat of terrific driving and just a small amount of luck, JP Gomez, who had started 99th, took the win.

Gomez took the trophy from his brother Raul, who won in 2022 and 2023. The new king teared up when talking about his brothers on the finish line. “We worked our asses off. Everyone in the Gomez Brothers Racing team and family — they all earned this as much as I did.”

Family first. That’s Hammers.

The nightlife

As the course is closed to racers, it is opened to spectators. Most of the racecourse is on public land, which means everyone has the right to access it. And these spectators go hard.

The biggest party goes down on Chocolate Thunder. Yes, that’s the name of the trail. I know it sounds like something a 12-year-old boy would say, but the truth is, the first person to successfully complete a new trail gets to name it. Some trails have been around for years and have names that make vague sense like Outer Limits, Sledgehammer, or Wrecking Ball. Those are words that conjure up images of really difficult rock trails. But then we get names like Chocolate Thunder. Or Her Problem. May I interest you in a ride on Backdoor? 

At any rate, every night at Chocolate Thunder, hundreds of spectators show up to test their garage-built rigs against the rocks. It’s a veritable traffic jam with drivers trying every driving line possible and some that are impossible. Drivelines are destroyed, hubs are sheared off, and engines routinely go boom. Folks set off fireworks, put on laser shows, and yes, have a fistfight or two. If you flip your rig, you’ll get chastised by the crowd, but folks will always help you recover. While racers need to run fully caged vehicles with five-point harnesses and wear the appropriate safety gear, nighttime at King of the Hammers is a free-for-all. It is unbridled chaos.

My pal Michael Teo Van Runkle experienced the spectacle that is Chocolate Thunder at night for the first time this year. “It’s gnarly,” he told me. “Everyone is wasted, everyone’s screaming. There are multiple side-by-sides with giant speaker systems blasting early 2000s rap music and modern pop country. Tires are blasting rocks into the crowd and tearing up what is going to be the race course the next day.”

“Meanwhile, the wind is blasting and there is sand and smoke everywhere,” he continued. “The trucks are spewing exhaust so you’re hacking the whole time. My eyeballs were coughing up grit and dirt for two days but it was so worth it…just a hard-core ragefest on the mountain with Mad Max apocalypse shit going on. It was awesome.”

Party like there’s no tomorrow. That’s Hammers.

The EVs

While the party rages on every night on the trail, those wanting something a bit more staid, — and much more techy — can check out the two-day Optima Unplugged event. For the second year in a row, Optima Batteries had 67 electrified vehicles out to King of the Hammers for fun trail rides through Johnson Valley. Most participants were in Rivians, both the truck and SUV, but there were also a few Ford F-150 Lightnings, Toyota Tundra hybrids, and a Tesla Model Y. To charge all of these EVs in the middle of the desert, Renewable Innovations was along for the ride with its green hydrogen and solar-powered Mobile Energy Command units, providing the free use of four Level 3 chargers and 10 Level 2 chargers.

Newbie Dennis Wang came out with his red-wrapped Cybertruck for an excellent introduction to wheeling in the dirt.

“This was my first time off-roading, my first time at King of the Hammers– first time at everything,” he said. “I didn’t know KOH was so massive and this EV thing was only like a sliver of what was going on. I was a bit anxious about off-roading but I learned a lot in the driver’s meeting and after the first hour I was really comfortable. At first I was worried about charging but having Renewable Innovations there with its off-grid system was pretty cool. My CCS adapter didn’t work, so I ran the whole day on one charge. I made it home, though!”

There were actually two Cybertrucks at the event, as Tesla aftermarket supplier Unplugged Performance brought out its own Cybertruck with the intent to find its limits — which eventually took the form of a broken rear tie rod. I was lucky enough to get a quick drive in Elon Musk’s dream car and was surprised by the composed air suspension in the undulating whoops. I expected the front end to get overwhelmed at speeds of 30 miles per hour or so, but it soaked up the hits no problem.

Ford Performance even brought out its one-off Switchgear concept. The team took an F-150 Lightning and added longer-travel Fox shocks, beefier control arms, and 37-inch tires, and then let driver and professional fun-haver Vaughn Gittin Jr. loose behind the wheel. I was relegated to the passenger seat, but man, what a thrill ride. We drifted across the dry lake bed, threw up rooster tails in the soft sand, and generally hooned like irresponsible children. If you want to get maximum range out of your EV when on the dirt, don’t let the fun-haver behind the wheel. During our drive, we only managed 0.5 miles / kWh, and it was worth every minute of extra time at Renewable Innovations.

Be different. That’s Hammers.

The drones

Even if you’re not at King of the Hammers, you can watch all the action on the streaming live show. For two weeks, some of the best off-road racing content in the world is streamed from a distant lake bed onto YouTube. There are three jumbotrons, two remote reporters, dozens of static cameras, and no fewer than 20 drones capturing all the action on the final day of racing. 

“At first we used a DJI Inspire 1 drone,” said operator Daniel Mayfield. “Now we have these first-person view drones and we have drone racers coming into cinematography. So we get flips and turns. We take the video feed out of their goggles and that’s what goes into the live show.”

These first-person drones provide an incredible view, getting into some close quarters with 6,000-pound race cars as they come into the finish. The fliers can spin, flip, and otherwise perform impressive acrobatics, providing a view to those at home like no other.

While it’s pretty easy to send the finish line footage to the production trailer a few feet away, the production crew uses drones out on the course, too, often miles away. In the past, microwave dishes have been used to relay footage back to the production trailer. This year, it was all done with Starlink. The video stream goes from the controller to a LiveU transmitter to a hardwired Starlink unit, although they also keep a secondary Starlink on Wi-Fi as backup. The feed gets sent to the production trailer where the technical director can bring the drone feed in and out of the live show as necessary.

Multiple static cameras brave the terrain, driving their own rigs over rough desert terrain to shooting spots, setting up their Starlinks, and waiting all day for the cars to come by. They brave the elements while the course is hot, enduring everything from bitter winds and rain to the pounding sun. And they do it all for the shot.

The result is 12 hours of uninterrupted coverage, beamed out to the hundreds of thousands of race fans around the world. Fans seem to like it as well, with one Perry P commenting on YouTube, “​It’s pretty amazing that the KOH coverage these days is better quality than Baja (1000) coverage.”

Always innovate. That’s Hammers.

The cleanup

While the entire King of the Hammers organization is committed to packing out what it packs in, some spectators are not quite so respectful of our public lands. Every morning, volunteers head up to Chocolate Thunder and Backdoor for a cleanup. They’re led by Tread Lightly, a national organization that promotes responsible off-roading, and the Sons of Smokey, a ragtag group of pals devoted to the collection and disposal of trash from public lands, and sponsored in part by Bronco Wild Fund.

These dedicated volunteers are the true heroes of King of the Hammers. Over the two weeks of events, the morning cleanups netted 7,600 pounds of trash cleared off our public lands.

Adding their own twist to land stewardship was Bad Lines, Good Times and its King of the Canners effort. Armed with 21 empty 55-gallon fuel drums with attached can crushers, the canners entered King of the Hammers on a mission: to collect and recycle as many aluminum cans as possible. The contraptions were scattered around popular viewing spots as well as the vendor area known as Hammertown and emptied once or twice a day. In the end, they hauled 267 pounds of aluminum off the lake bed. 

The group lost money on the venture, as most cleanups usually do, but team member Elliot Strickler summed it up perfectly, “Doing nothing is not an option.”

Do the right thing. That’s Hammers.

The finish line

Of course, there are so many more stories to tell from the lake bed. There was an invasion of old-school three-wheelers, a motorcycle race where bikes got flipped and riders went flying, a contest to test the mettle of teams’ pit crews, 33 stock Volkswagen bugs started their race side by side and it all went horribly wrong, a guy whose car caught on fire in the middle of the night while he slept next to it, and countless other debacles and victories that I don’t even know about. 

The racing at King of the Hammers is like no other. Where F1 cancels a race because of a manhole cover and NASCAR throws a caution flag for an errant pebble on the track, the competitors at King of the Hammers are stopped by nothing. It’s the only event where part of your race strategy might just be driving off a cliff.

It’s not often a motorsports event puts an emphasis on sustainability. Then again, the Rebelle Rally isn’t your average motorsports event. Instead of being based on speed, the Rebelle is all about precise navigation. 

Over eight days of competition, teams of two drive street-legal vehicles to 20 or so checkpoints each day, all off-road and without using GPS. The teams plot latitude and longitude points on a topographical map and figure out a way to get to those checkpoints using only analog tools: a scale ruler; a plotter to determine the heading; and a compass. Checkpoints might be marked by a flag, but often they are not marked at all, leaving teams to triangulate their location.

Oh, and the Rebelle Rally just happens to be for women only.

Founder Emily Miller wanted to bring a motorsports challenge to life where women have the opportunity to participate even with little to no experience. Now in its eighth year, the rally attracts participants from all walks of life. There are engineers, lawyers, CEOs, moms, and yes, some race car drivers. Regardless of their profession, all share a love of adventure and a competitive spirit.

Since 2020, the Rebelle has fielded electric vehicles. It started the first two years with yours truly piloting a Rivian R1T along with my trusty navigator, Rebecca Donaghe. We brought the truck, but we let Miller solve the problem of charging the vehicle in remote locations for over a week. 

The easiest way would be to just use a diesel generator to charge. The hard way — the better way — would be to use sustainable hydrogen to keep the EVs rolling along the course. 

Off-grid power

This is where Renewable Innovations comes in. Founded by hydrogen industry leader Robert Mount, this Utah-based company is dedicated to bringing green power solutions to the most isolated parts of the world. The company has developed two Mobile Energy Command (MEC) systems to deliver sustainable power to the Rebelle Rally.

The rally has two problems to solve. First, it has to deliver clean energy to the myriad electric vehicles competing in the event. It also has to bring sustainable power to each of the three base camps. 

To solve the first problem, Renewable Innovations built the MEC-Hydrogen, or MEC-H. In 2023, there are four Rivian R1T trucks and a Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally competing that need power both at base camp and on-course. Additionally, there are four Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe plug-in hybrids to be juiced up every night. The MEC-H gets it all done with green hydrogen. 

What is green hydrogen, anyway?

Hydrogen is classified based on its extraction method. Gray hydrogen, created with natural gas, is the most common. Green hydrogen is made by using renewable energy, usually solar or wind power, to electrolyze water. When electricity is added to water, the oxygen and hydrogen atoms are split without any direct CO2 emissions.

Renewable Innovations brought green hydrogen from supplier Plug Power to the Rebelle Rally in a special tanker developed by Quantum Fuel Systems. Mount dubbed the tanker the VP, or virtual pipeline, capable of delivering 800 kilograms of the sustainable element. While Mount expects the infrastructure to expand in the future, for now, the only way to deliver hydrogen is with a diesel-powered truck, to say nothing of bringing it to a remote desert location.

However, as hydrogen-powered tractor trailers improve, the company expects to be able to use hydrogen fuel cell big rigs as delivery vehicles, making the whole shebang one big sustainable system.

The MEC-H is equipped with eight fuel cells, capable of producing 30kW of power each. Hydrogen from the VP comes through a stainless steel line into the fuel cells, where reverse electrolysis happens. An electrochemical process splits the proton and electron in the hydrogen. The proton passes through a membrane, combines with oxygen from the atmosphere, and makes water. The electrons flow around the membrane, and bingo — clean electricity.

There is one little problem, however. The MEC-H is equipped with two commercial DC fast chargers, the kind you’ll find at any public charging station. These chargers are designed to take AC power from the grid and turn it into the DC power required by EVs. Think of EVs as picky eaters that will only eat chicken nuggets. These chargers take the chicken — the AC power from the grid — and turn it into chicken nuggets — DC power — so the EVs will eat their dinner.

Bringing the problem a bit further back in the process, the fuel cells store DC power, but currently, there isn’t a way to plug the EVs directly into these fuel cells. See, the picky eater wants Trader Joe’s chicken nuggets, not the ones from Whole Foods. So the DC power — the chicken nuggets from Whole Foods — needs to go through an inverter to convert to AC — back into a whole chicken — only to be fed into the fast chargers to get changed back to DC — the required chicken nuggets from Trader Joe’s — and into the electric vehicles. 

Mount estimates the current swapping process results in anywhere from 4 to 8 percent in power loss. He says he hopes to build chargers that can accept DC power by next year.

The fuel cells can also send power to a bank of batteries, bringing the total amount of on-board stored power to 560kW. When everything is working at full blast, the fuel cells put out about 15 gallons of deionized, drinkable water per hour. 

Water in, water out, charge thirsty EVs in between while out in a remote location — that is what Miller has always wanted and what Renewable Innovations has done. 

A portable green charging station

Between the two commercial chargers, there are three CSS plugs and one CHAdeMo. Each charger can deliver 180kW of electricity, splitting it between the two ports as necessary. The MEC-H also has three Level 2 chargers that provide 6kW of power, perfect for charging the plug-in hybrids overnight.

The MEC-H is used at base camps but sometimes heads out on course to charge vehicles if the competitors have an extra-long stage, which can be as many as 249 miles (400 kilometers). While most electric vehicles can certainly travel the full range for a single charge on the pavement, range drops when the tires hit the dirt. 

But what happens if an EV runs out of charge at a place the MEC-H can’t get to? That is when the Recovery Vehicle BEV gets its turn in the sun. This special forces Polaris side by side is equipped with 15kWh of charging capacity and a 5kW inverter. It’s currently functioning as a Level 1 charger, able to push five miles of charge in about an hour. However, Renewable Innovations has plans to upgrade soon. Still, competitors better hope they don’t run out of electrons out in the field. It might be a long wait to get going again.

Blooming sunshine

However, the MEC-H only solves the problem of charging EVs. The three base camps, or BCs, are the home away from home for competitors, media, and staff and need massive amounts of power to function. There are media computers to power, water to heat showers, and a fully equipped kitchen that has to feed all 256 staff and competitors twice a day. Here, the MEC-S saves the day — and you guessed it, the S stands for solar.

The MEC-S has 23 static panels and two 13-foot circular solar panels that are programmed with the base camps’ latitude and longitude points. They unfurl at dawn like a daisy flower, track the Sun across the sky, and put themselves to bed at dusk. All told, the panels and flowers can put out over 50kW of electricity at peak, enough to power 10 houses as long as air conditioning use is conservative. 

The MEC-S also has 12 18kW batteries to store energy for use at nighttime and in the early morning when base camp is full of competitors. There are lights in the base camp tent, coffee is percolating, announcements are being made over the PA system, and Starlink is uploading massive digital files to the internet, all without the use of a generator. 

Instead, folks plug into one of six mobile breaker boxes scattered throughout base camp. 60 amps go from the MEC-S into each box, and that power is then split into five GFCI-protected outlets, which can then be split between a maximum of 20 outlets. The MEC-S can also function as a Level 1 or Level 2 charger should the MEC-H get overwhelmed with electric vehicles. 

The fly in the ointment here is the large refrigerated kitchen truck. While there is enough power for the smaller kitchen tools, the larger box truck would require a second MEC-S, and that’s not in the cards at the moment. Instead, a majority of the food is kept cool by the truck’s own generator. 

Going the distance

The Rebelle Rally really functions as a proving ground for Renewable Innovations’ green power delivery systems. If it can move to three different base camps over the course of a week and work flawlessly, it can certainly be brought into disaster areas to provide emergency power. In fact, Renewable Innovations has been working with the Navajo Nation to help it keep a portable cell tower running for disaster services. 

Both Renewable Innovations and the Rebelle Rally understand that the technology isn’t perfect. First of all, it’s expensive as hell. While traditional high-powered diesel generators can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, the MEC-H is close to $5 million, although subsequent setups should be much less expensive. Further, the MEC-S needs to power the large refrigerator truck before base camp can be completely generator-free. 

Finally, current infrastructure means the quickest and easiest way to deliver hydrogen is with a diesel tractor trailer. However, both organizations are dedicated to pushing the technology forward. Each year, the technology gets more efficient, providing more power at a lower cost. 

A few years ago, we were just crawling when it came to clean, sustainable power. Now, we are walking. Renewable Innovations wants to take us over the finish line. 

George Hotz just wants to build robots. You can see the desire in the Comma 3, the next-generation assisted driving hardware from his company, Comma.ai. 

“It’s got two eyes,” he tells me, pointing to the two forward-facing cameras. He then holds the device up to his face so I can see the cameras are spaced about as far apart as a set of eyes on a human. 

Hotz goes on, “It has a mouth for speaking. It can breathe air to cool itself… We’re building a human head.” 

You may remember Hotz when he went by the hacker name “geohot” to jailbreak an iPhone at the tender age of 17. Since then, he’s been a thorn in Elon Musk’s side, dissing Tesla’s Autopilot technology. And he’s pissed off Sony by breaking into a PlayStation 3. (Sony sued but later dropped the suit on the condition that Hotz agree to never tinker with its hardware again.)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been keeping a keen eye on him, to the point where Hotz nearly stopped making the Comma unit altogether in 2016. He fired himself as CEO of Comma and now claims he’s just a marketing intern. (He also took a recent spin as an intern at Musk’s Twitter but quit after a couple of weeks.)

Hotz is outspoken about his dislike for native driver-assist systems, and he’s always wanted to “make driving chill.” I’m about to get a demo in this latest iteration to see just how chill it can be. 

The Comma 3 is larger than a cellphone but smaller than an iPad. Unlike past iterations, the Openpilot assisted-driving software is already downloaded into the device. After all, what good is a head without any brains? Drivers need only mount the system to the windshield, run the wire down to the vehicle’s CAN bus, and plug it in. There, it accesses the car’s adaptive cruise control and lane-centering technology, turning them up to 11.

The Comma 3 hands-free driving-assist technology is better than anything you can get from a legacy manufacturer. On a demonstration drive in Las Vegas, the system is installed into a Kia EV6. There is a rear-facing camera on the Comma 3 directed toward me to ensure I don’t take my eyes off the road or fall asleep. If I do, it issues a visual warning, then an audible one if I still refuse to pay attention — or wake up.

The six-inch display screen shows the road ahead, an overlay of the lane markings so I know what it’s seeing, the car’s speed, and the max speed of the system. The device also acts as a dash cam, recording up to 1TB of video, if that’s your jam. It’s GPS enabled, although it won’t follow those directions on its own just yet.

To start, I just press the adaptive cruise control button on the Kia’s steering wheel. At first, it’s not much different than GM’s Super Cruise or Ford’s BlueCruise. I can take my hands off the wheel and the system follows traffic easily, taking gentle curves smoothly, changing lanes on its own, and all in all, not causing much fuss. However, drivers can only use the systems from Ford and GM on premapped roads. The Comma 3 is good pretty much anywhere.

That’s because it takes all its direction from the two high-tech cameras. It sees the lane markings, the pace of the other cars around it, a few traffic cones, and even one wayward bicyclist and just… drives. Of course, I keep my eyes up, and I’m ready to take over at any time, but the Comma-controlled Kia is doing just fine on its own.

The biggest upgrade from the Comma 2 is the ability to recognize traffic lights. A few times during my drive, I am the first in line at a red light. The Comma 3 sees the red light and stops the car smoothly, front tires in line with the corner curbing, something I failed to do on my own driving test when I was 16 and walked away with a 97 percent instead of a perfect score. It holds the car at a full stop until the light turns green, then it gently accelerates away. 

The Comma 3 is one of the only systems on the road today that can stop at red lights. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system, a beta driver-assist program that doesn’t enable fully autonomous capabilities (no matter what Musk says), “identifies stop signs and traffic lights and automatically slows your car to a stop on approach, with your active supervision,” according to the company’s website.

Another “oh wow” moment is when the car in front of me turns right into a gas station. Other native adaptive cruise control systems slow for the turning car, then wait until the lead car is completely out of the lane before it starts accelerating again. This is not how humans drive and always leaves me yelling “go, you stupid computer!” The Comma 3 gets it right, accelerating when the turning car is mostly out of the lane. It’s a much more natural experience.

Even driving through a few tight chicanes feels pretty ordinary. Instead of keeping the car directly centered in the lane, the Comma 3 gives a much more natural path, cutting the corners ever so slightly, though still staying within the lane markings.

That’s not to say the Comma 3 is perfect. It disengaged once on my test drive at a fairly confusing intersection. The light is situated in the middle of a curve in the road and the sun is reflecting off the painted lines on the pavement. The human driver, me, is a bit confused, so it’s tough to fault the robot.

Still, as good as the Comma 3 is, it does not make your car drive itself. Even with my hands off the wheel, I still have to pay attention and be ready to take over at any time. Case in point — I’m stopped at a red left-turn arrow, but when it turns green, the car doesn’t go. 

“It’s scared,” says Hotz, reminding me that he really does think of this system as a human-like robot. However, all I need to do is give the steering wheel a little bit of input, and the car starts the turn. Driving assist, yes. Self-driving, no.

The Comma 3 is compatible with over 200 vehicles, some with a model year as old as 2014. Comma.ai says its system works especially well with late-model Hyundai and Toyota cars. You can snag one at Comma.ai’s website for $1,499, more if you want more memory storage for video plus $200 for your car’s specific wiring harness.  

The unit has been on the market for about a year and a half, and 5,000 of them are in drivers’ hands as we speak. Hotz thinks that, within two years, we’ll see a Chinese manufacturer build a car with his technology built in. However, it’s unclear what the future holds for Hotz and his company. 

He says, “This is not the game plan forever. I think that we’re going to have a great five-year run where we make a couple hundred million dollars selling these things, but long term, I want to push way beyond these things… The real thing you want is a chauffeur. The real thing you want is a humanoid robot that will sit down in your driver’s seat and drive the car.”

Hotz claims to have a rudimentary Comma body, and I’ve already seen the Comma head during this demo. Whether a full-driving — or vacuuming or cooking — robot is something that Comma.ai can produce remains to be seen. One thing I can say for sure: hacker-turned-robot-builder is quite a career trajectory. 

Update January 10th, 2:29PM ET: Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta system identifies and stops at traffic lights. A previous version of this story did not state that clearly.