Overview
Comma AI currently has official support for a number of VAG Vehicles and it's quite easy to add a new one based on the MQB platform. Check the Vehicle Support section for details and caveats. For more detailed information ask at #volkswagen on comma.ai Discord.
This article is about MQB platform (2014-2021). There is a development going on for the PQ platform (2005-2014) - for more information see Volkswagen PQ.
Supported Vehicles
Current Openpilot releases should be able to support most VAG MQB vehicles (2014-2021) .
See Volkswagen Supported Cars for details.
Vehicles on the PQ platform (2005-2014) should check out the Volkswagen PQ page.
Integration into VAG MQB vehicles
Purchasing the comma two (c2) or comma three (c3) is the easiest way to get started.
The comma relay box 'harness box' connects to the vehicle through the Driver Assistance Systems Front Camera R242 (the LKAS camera at the top center of the front windscreen). Vehicles without LKAS (Lane Assist) will not have an R242 and will be connected to the Data Bus on Board Diagnostic Interface J533 Gateway, located underneath the dash, normally above the brake pedal on MQB vehicles.
If your car has Lane Keep & Adaptive Cruise Control
You will for now integrate at the R242 camera. You will need a comma two DevKit or a comma three DevKit with the MQB Development Harness. The harness comes with the relay box 'harness box' that you will need. (VW Golf and MQB development car harness's are the same)
This will take up your OBD2 port and will not allow longitudinal control through Openpilot in the future. If either isn't to your liking, you can just use a J533 harness.
If your car only has Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
You will integrate at the J533 gateway since there is no R242 camera. You will need a comma two DevKit or a comma three DevKit, and a VAG J533 Harness now sold by comma as the 'VW J533 Development' Car Harness. The harness comes with the relay box 'harness box' that you will need.
You will also need a suitable 3m (10ft) long USB C 3.1 Gen 2 cable. Standard USB C cables will not work as the required pins are not present.
You can also make your own J533 Harness.
Additionally, you must recode the steering rack and instrument cluster to make the car believe it has LKAS using VCDS/Carista/OBDEleven or VCP (this allows lateral control via CAN messages to the steering rack). Modify control module 17 (instruments) and module 44 (steering assist). See this video for instructions (VCDS). Module 17 coding is optional.
step by step guide for installing openpilot in a MK7 Golf
If your car has neither ACC nor LKAS
This has not been explored very much yet. Theoretically, you could retrofit ACC (example guide) and then continue as if your car only has ACC. It may also be possible just to do the coding of other parts for ACC (according to mqb.pl article) without the physical radar. However, this has not been tried and it is possible that an ACC fault will arise from the missing radar and other parts (engine, brakes) it would stop responding to ACC commands.
Software
Comma 3 (Three)
Camera Integration
If you are integrated at the camera, use the stock installation URL: https://openpilot.comma.ai.
Gateway Integration
If you are integrated at the Gateway (J533), use the stock installation URL: https://openpilot.comma.ai.
Unrecognized Vehicle
If your car isn't recognized and enters dashcam mode, you probably only have to add your Fingerprint. Be sure to open a pull request, or, share your data in the comma.ai Discord Volkswagen channel and it will be taken care of.
Comma 2 (Two) or Black Panda+LeEco based Eon
Camera Integration
If you are integrated at the camera, use the stock installation URL: https://openpilot.comma.ai.
Gateway Integration
If you are integrated at the Gateway (J533), use the stock installation URL: https://openpilot.comma.ai.
Unrecognized Vehicle
If your car isn't recognized and enters dashcam mode, you probably only have to add your Fingerprint. Be sure to open a pull request, or, share your data in the comma.ai Discord Volkswagen channel and it will be taken care of.
Grey Panda/White Panda and OnePlus Eons aren't supported on newer releases: Install the Community Port (Release 2 - OpenPilot 0.7.9)
To run the Community port, you MUST install stock openpilot first.
Newer C2 ship with NEOS 15+. You must have NEOS 14 for the Community port to work.
To downgrade use the following command via SSH:
cd /data && rm -rf openpilot && git clone -b release2 https://github.com/jyoung8607/openpilot && cd /data/openpilot/installer/updater && rm update.json && wget https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/538741329799413760/774123747257876480/update.json && reboot
On the community port you may have to set your integration location manually:
echo -n "gateway" > /data/params/d/ForceNetworkLocation
or
echo -n "camera" > /data/params/d/ForceNetworkLocation
OpenPilot Capabilities
Lateral Control
Control over the steering wheel is provided by OpenPilot. All VAG MQB vehicles tested to-date support steering down to 0mph.
Torque
Available steering torque is adequate for most highway driving conditions. All MQB models support the exact same amount of commanded torque, but the different steering rack and suspension geometry between models can result in different effective performance.
Minimum Speeds
The minimum Adaptive Cruise Control setpoint is 20mph/30kph, cars with automatic gearboxes will steer down to 0mph & cars with manual gearboxes will steer down to ~10mph.
Longitudinal Control
Longitudinal control remains with stock Adaptive Cruise Control, although OP takes control of the engagement process for additional safety and feature needs. The exact behavior depends on whether the vehicle has "ACC High" or "ACC Low" from the factory.
Stock ACC High:
These vehicles support follow-to-stop and automatic resume if the stop is less than three seconds, from the factory. OP can improve on that by resuming on behalf of the driver after longer delays by emulating repeated RES presses at standstill. "ACC high" requires an electronic parking brake, and does make use of it under certain conditions. If the vehicle in question has an EPB, chances are good it supports "ACC high".
Stock ACC Low:
These vehicles generally support follow-to-stop (XXX review this: maybe near-stop only) but will require the driver to take over and hold the brake after a very short delay. Resume from stop is moot as "ACC low" vehicles will not hold themselves at a stop. Any vehicles with a manual parking brake, either foot or hand-operated, will fall into this category.
*THERE ARE VARIATIONS TO BOTH VARIATIONS, This is only a basic overview.
PQ platform (2005-2014)
See Volkswagen PQ page.
Make-Specific Terms
For general terms, go here.
| Term | Abbreviation | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Modularer Querbaukasten / Modular Transverse Matrix | MQB | 2014-2021 Strategy for shared modular design between VAG group makes and models. MQB cars with ACC work with Openpilot. |
| Electronic Parking Brake | EPB | A handbrake system powered by electric motors. Wiki |
| Component Protection | CP | Component Protection is required on some newer parts to unlock them in working in that vehicle. |
| Adaptive cruise control | ACC | Control of the speed of the car; usually through use of radar in factory systems |
| Longitudinal | long | basically ACC but usually in the OP context |
| Lateral | lat | Control of the steering wheel |
| Lane keep assist | LKAS | Same as lat but usually in the context of the factory system |
| jyoung8607 | jyoung | First to make OP work in VW |
| Edgy | Edgy | First to make OP long work in VW PQ (2005-2014) |
Useful links
- Adaptive Cruise Control retrofit – ACC on MQB
- Tutorial – Retrofiting Lane Assist | Sign Assist | Light Assist – 5Q0980653
Known issues / FAQ
-Set point creep: On cars where the RES button increases the cruise speed set point by 1, the set point will often go up, especially when the car in front is already moving but we aren't moving yet. Will probably be fixed in a future update by incorporating ["ESP_21"]['ESP_Haltebestaetigung'] as a condition for emulating RES presses when at a standstill.
-Radar/Vision Fusion for OP long control: Unlike some other cars, MQB cars don't give much raw Radar data. Because of this the radar fusion won't be as easy. Once OP long control is as reliable as stock radar based ACC it can still be implemented.