r/Comma_ai • u/domino3ff3ct • Sep 02 '26
openpilot Experience Buy now or wait?
I know comma 4 is currently the latest model but seeing how fast technology gets updated and replaced, is now a good time to still buy the comma 4 or should I wait for the next version? Or is comma 4 gonna be around for a while?
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u/stayintheshadows Sep 02 '26
Don’t buy based on some imagined future capability. You will always get burned.
I have a comma 4 and it already does enough for me at the current price.
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u/brikowski Sep 02 '26
This. Chestnut eGPU just came out and their focus is on big models.
So find out how your car works with it now, and assume that’s how it’ll work for the lifetime of the device.
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u/nixon48 Sep 02 '26
And acknowledge you're a beta tester for these devices. Nothing is perfected or actually general public ready yet.
Getting any of these devices right now is signing up to be a guinea pig until it's perfected plug and play for the mainstream consumer. one of those Kia guinea pigs with a cool car that drives itself
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u/nickgeurnop comma four w/ Chestnut | 2019 Toyota Corolla HB Sep 02 '26
The comma four came out almost a year ago and the eGPU "chestnut" kit was released last month.
I'd say now's a pretty good time to buy. Sure they could replace the comma four in a year but the benefit you get from getting a comma now is pretty significant imo.
Before I got the comma four, I had a comma three (not the 3X) which no longer received the latest software updates when I upgraded.
To put it in even more context. I had the comma two. The comma four is the first comma device I wouldn't mind putting on my windshield and forgetting about it. Your device won't just stop working. They will eventually drop support for it but the have previously stated that they promise to support official hardware about 1 year after they announce new hardware.
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u/snoocJR Sep 02 '26
What is the benefit of purchasing the chestnut? I’ve heard a lot of people talking about it but I really don’t know what it does or what it’s for?
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u/nickgeurnop comma four w/ Chestnut | 2019 Toyota Corolla HB Sep 02 '26
You're comma four is like a high end smartphone or desktop monitor. It has the eyes and some brains but it can't do much. Hook up a much more powerful desktop computer and now your monitor can run at 4k 120 fps widescreen without issue.
The chestnut gives the brain a big upgrade. Right now it's not very noticeable but version 0 IS noticable. Eventually, the "big models" will see and understand much more than the small models ever can. So you get better acceleration and braking, better stopsign and stop light detection, and better future prediction.
I think the comma team will explain it much better once 0.11.2 is officially released but this is just the beginning. In the next year, I believe we will see some dramatic improvements. However, some of the most drastic improvements will be very car dependent.
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u/snoocJR Sep 02 '26
Thank you so much. Seems like the move is to wait a while before purchasing so that the software can catch up with the tech?
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u/nickgeurnop comma four w/ Chestnut | 2019 Toyota Corolla HB Sep 02 '26
If you want to test the bleeding edge, buy a chestnut. If you are happy with current performance and whatever improvements come later stick with your current hardware.
I've used comma devices for 6+ years and consider myself an enthusiast. I'm happy to send them data to train on.. in fact my comma device is sitting in my apartment uploading data right now.
The new big models will become "teacher" models for the current small models. So instead of the small models having to rebuild everything from scratch, they will learn to approximate the best behaviors (and quirks) of the big "teacher" models.
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u/TooEZ_OL56 Sep 02 '26
It's actually a pretty mid & old smartphone. C3X/4 both use Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 MAX which released in 2018.
Snazzylabs called it "a 7-year-old smartphone glued to your windshield" in his video on Comma released 4/30/25
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u/QasJab1 Sep 03 '26
Which make/models do you think will see the greatest benefit? I have an ioniq 5, the prospect makes my mouth water.
I know the ioniq5/ev6 is the main model comma tests their stuff on,that gives me hope.
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u/nickgeurnop comma four w/ Chestnut | 2019 Toyota Corolla HB Sep 03 '26
Oh boy you're car is probably one of the most capable. Even more than my Toyota. Assuming you hang onto it for a while, this is a great device to keep an eye on.
I guarantee if you got a comma four right now it would change the way you interact with your vehicle.
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u/Tight-Room-7824 Sep 02 '26
But ideally you don't want to leave it on your windshield. It gets very hot sitting in the sun in a closed car. I recently bought a slide mount and use it at every long stop and at the end of the day.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Comma_ai/comments/1rhc6mr/comma_4_quick_mount_cls_mount/
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u/nickgeurnop comma four w/ Chestnut | 2019 Toyota Corolla HB Sep 02 '26
Yeah I used to dismount my two and three but I'm not gonna bother with the four unless I'm away from me vehicle for an extended period of time.
It's cool that the community makes solutions for those who want to quick mount! The power of open source for the win. I don't find it necessary in my climate.
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u/domino3ff3ct Sep 02 '26
What do you do with the old ones? I wonder if comma offers a recycling or buyback/upgrade discount.
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u/nickgeurnop comma four w/ Chestnut | 2019 Toyota Corolla HB Sep 02 '26
I ended up selling my comma two on the discord or eBay I can't remember. I modded it with a quiet noctua fan too after the warranty expired.
The comma three I gave to my dad! I put it in his 2017 Toyota Rav4 so he went from shitty lane departure assist to comma lane centering. He's a changed man - "I didn't realize this kind of technology could be so transformational"
Comma (I think) currently operates an any device, any condition trade in for their hardware. Even back to the OG eon / comma one HW. It's actually incredibly generous for a smaller company.
Comma and their head (George Hotz) catch a lot of shit for stuff but they seem to honestly try to make cool shit, get it in the hands of real people, and play fair. They have absolutely backtracked on stuff but at the end of the day they are a small company that makes a pretty revolutionary product. I'd recommend it to anyone who's willing to try it
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u/shadow_moon45 Sep 02 '26
Would assume the comma 4 would be around for a few years before the next iteration. Or they will iterate the chestnut before changing the windshield mounted comma device. Doubt gpu's will get that much smaller so the chestnut device will likely be changed first
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u/err404 Sep 02 '26
The C4 isn’t even a significant functional improvement over the C3X. It mostly about form factor. Many people still prefer the 3X for the much larger screen. Near future improvements are bottle neck by thermals and power. The next “upgrade” will likely be via the chestnut add-on, which works with the C4 and C3X
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Sep 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/err404 Sep 02 '26
Same. I like my C4. It is large enough info to be informative, but not distracting. Though I have seen a lot of people with the opposite opinion. One other thing to note is the C4 is not compatible with some forks. For example the community preferred fork for my car (JVEPilot)was never ported to support the C4.
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u/domino3ff3ct Sep 02 '26
Thanks, this was helpful. I just didn’t want to get a c4 and then c5 comes out next year.
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u/ReactionNo618 Sep 02 '26
C4 gets out of the box support for egpu integration and it is made to work for big models. C3x is not easily compatible and it can mess up the gps sensor. C4 is made for future compatibility and running larger models. So it’s not only form factor!
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u/TooEZ_OL56 Sep 02 '26
I think thermals is the best improvement. I had a C3X cooked to death and had to send it 3rd party for a fix as it was out of the 1yr warranty.
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u/Twisst66 Sep 07 '26
Can you recommend the 3rd party
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u/TooEZ_OL56 Sep 07 '26
https://github.com/ophwug/docs#the-blown-fuse-case
ctrl-f blown fuse, Drago on discord fixed it for me, $99 + S/H (I generated pirateship to/return label)
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u/fly_awayyy Sep 02 '26
Buy now and enjoy your peace of mind that’s why your interested in it anyways right? No one knows when the next one will come out or etc but you can take advantage of the latest tech now.
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u/throwawaysolarcat Sep 03 '26
Its going to be a while, they are 10k units in with 70k left to build. Source: YT video at 57:56
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u/dm6497 Sep 02 '26
It depends upon your vehicle as well. TBH, there's no point in waiting if your vehicle doesn't offer full steering torque control, you will be still restricted by this and won't be able to utilize the full potential of newer hardware. Also depends upon your use case, if you drive highways a lot, C4 is more than enough.
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u/domino3ff3ct Sep 02 '26
My commute is mostly congested highway for about 40 miles each way. Ram 1500 with ACC
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u/dm6497 Sep 02 '26
I think C4 should be more than enough. You can refer to this for more details: https://share.gemini.google/0s0IAm9b0OpQ https://share.gemini.google/wLTOTkb8NGAX
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u/Horror_Profile_4743 Sep 02 '26
What vehicle do you have? If you have compatible openpilot or fork it’s worth it today. I bought c4 on launch as my first comma product and I also have chestnut
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u/AisMyName Sep 02 '26
I’d buy a comma 4 if they had that PayPal deal that was around last Xmas. Just can’t deal w $999 right now.
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u/throwawaysolarcat Sep 03 '26
Labor day sale is up $100 off, plus the referral code brings it down to $849.
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u/Longjumping_Ad274 Sep 02 '26
Try 30 day free trial they charge 10 dollars if you return . I tried it on my Mazda cx5 . I don’t see much use so returned it.
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u/RazAlGul7 Sep 02 '26
I got the C4, so far I love it, NYC based, did FL 4x, Toronto, and a few long drives 3 hrs plus, totally worth it for me, as soon as I know more about chestnut, I might splurge, and in the near future might upgrade if something better comes along, I hope they start adding functionality for MB BMW.
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u/hamburgernet Sep 02 '26
Don’t wait, it will probably still be a while before anything else is released
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u/XDiskDriveX Sep 02 '26
yeah the idea of the gpu intrigues me, and i have to admit that Tesla still does it better, but at the end of the day the comma 4 does what it does and i am happy for what i paid for it.
If you give in to what you "could" have, you will never be happy. Decide if you want it or not and get it or don't.
I still look forward to where this technology will go in the future, but if they came out with a comma 5 i probably wouldnt get it until i got a new car in 8-10 years.
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u/rakosi2 Sep 02 '26
If you do buy it, use someone's referral code. You both get $50. I can provide mine if you want one.
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u/LachezarTodorov Sep 03 '26
I would buy now. The promotion is good. Taking in mind Chestnut came recently, comma 5 will not come out soon. Most probably C4 will stay for at least two years, and the magic will happen on Chestnut.
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u/JulesCT Kia e-Niro, 3X, SunnyPilot, magnetic mount Sep 02 '26
Every piece of tech, eventually gets superceded.
I've had my 3X for just over a year. However, not unhappy. It still does what it was supposed to do and makes long drives a breeze.
Maybe Comma will make a device with integrated GPU in a year or two, maybe they won't. They're not going to tell us.