Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is banking on 26-year-old hacker George Hotz to take on the giants of the auto industry in the race to develop autonomous driving technology. The VC firm showed its commitment to Comma.ai, Hotz’s autonomous driving startup, by plunking down $3.1 million for the company.
The investment is seen as a huge validation for Hotz, who gained notoriety a decade ago when he managed to “jail break” the iPhone so that it could be used by all telecom carriers. Since then, Hotz has interned at Google, worked at Facebook, and got sued by Sony over a similar hacking episode involving the PlayStation 3. The latter incident even gave rise to the legend of his hacker alias, Geohot. That’s quite the resume for a man still four years away from his 30th birthday.
Despite his age, Hotz continues to push the boundaries of technology with Comma.ai, a company that’s currently working on a kit that will fit semi-autonomous driving technology to regular vehicles. The firm hopes to have a simple plug-and-play kit on the market by the end of 2016 at a price point south of $1,000.
It’s an ambitious goal for a company that’s only been around since October, 2015. But that hasn’t stopped the 26-year-old from reaching for the starters. In fact, shortly after founding Comma.ai, Hotz purchased cameras, GoPro mounts, and a 2016 Acura ILX and started working on the tech from his garage in San Francisco.
In the time since, Hotz was able to catch the attention of Chris Dixon, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and convinced him to make a seven-figure investment in the startup. With the money now on the table, Comma.ai is in the process of expanding its team past the four people that were initially involved in the project.
The pressure’s on Hotz and Comma.ai to now deliver on its goal of bringing semi-autonomous driving technology to market. If it succeeds, there’s a chance the company could revolutionize the industry much sooner than most automakers thought they could. Time to see if Hotz is as good as his legend suggests.
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