A New Chapter: Transparency

At the end of 2021, there were fewer than 20 users using sunnypilot. Fast forward to today, with 650+ forks and 700+ stars on sunnypilot’s GitHub repository, sunnypilot currently has over 2500 Monthly Active Users, and the number continues to grow.

650+ forks and 700+ stars on sunnypilot's GitHub repository (recorded on July 29, 2024)

Since version 0.8.12, sunnypilot has been publishing new releases in compiled branches, for benefits such as quick device boots after installation, structured and streamlined release cycles that match comma ai’s openpilot, and more. However, we kept the Git commit history of the version releases to the bare minimum and had the User Interface (UI) and Panda safety source code compiled and removed from the releases.

Over the years, we’ve heard all kinds of feedback from users and the community about our decision to release new versions of sunnypilot with the UI and Panda safety source code closed. We’ve received both praise and criticism, support and opposition. We’ve taken all of it to heart.

sunnypilot Onroad View

sunnypilot Settings

Open Source

Until now, sunnypilot has been developed in a private repository by our internal developers and contributors. If you saw references to “openpilot-special” or “panda-special,” that’s what they were.

Starting today, we are transitioning sunnypilot to a fully open development model. sunnypilot is now completely open source, including its UI and Panda safety source code, and is available publicly on GitHub. We will now together, develop on sunnypilot master.

As a sunnypilot end user, this change will not affect you. The release-c3, staging-c3, and dev-c3 branches will continue to be where new releases are published.

Why Open Source

Open sourcing sunnypilot completely is a no-brainer: More transparency with development, offer proper channels for contributors, promote open source, and more. But why, and why now?

Transparency in Development

By opening up sunnypilot’s commit histories for feature and master branches, we want to show you exactly how we’re developing sunnypilot. You’ll be able to see the evolution of the project, understand the rationale behind decisions, and better align your contributions with our direction. This transparency will help us create a collaborative environment where every improvement, big or small, is visible and valued.

Realizing our Original Vision

The reasons for keeping sunnypilot closed source no longer apply. We’ve reached a point where opening our doors to the community aligns perfectly with our goals and vision. The landscape has changed, and we believe that the benefits of open sourcing sunnypilot now far outweigh any previous concerns.

Collaboration and Upstream Contributions

By going open source, we’re inviting you to work directly with us on adding more car models, enhancing feature support, and fixing bugs. This collaboration will ensure that sunnypilot can quickly adapt to support new vehicles and technologies, providing you with an enhanced and up-to-date driving experience.

Decoupling Challenges and Mitigating Risks

Right now, the knowledge and development of sunnypilot are concentrated among a few core developers, which creates a single point of failure and slows down progress. By open sourcing sunnypilot, we can tap into a broader pool of talent and ideas, reducing risks and accelerating innovation. This approach will help us reach more users and talented developers faster than our previous release cycles allowed.

Aligning with Our Mission

sunnypilot's mission is to offer a unique driving experience with numerous feature enhancements that improve the car's Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Open sourcing helps us reach more users and cars, allowing a broader audience to experience superior driving assistance. It aligns with our goal of enhancing safety, convenience, and enjoyment on the road.

Global Development and Transparency

Open sourcing sunnypilot promotes global collaboration and development. It allows for a better understanding of bug fixes and feature developments, as well as the decisions behind them. Open source code is easy to audit, ensuring it is free from mistakes or any malicious code and aligns with our commitment to security and integrity.

A huge thank you to our sponsors on GitHub Sponsors and Patreon. Your contributions are vital to our project, helping us cover development costs, server fees, and hardware for testing. We’re grateful for your support and commitment to sunnypilot. Stay tuned for a future blog post where we’ll dive into the details of our expenses and exactly how your contributions are making a difference.

While our Python code has always been open source, we are now taking the step to open source the rest of sunnypilot. This decision marks a significant milestone in our journey, as we aim to foster an inclusive and transparent development environment. It’s time for all of us to start developing on sunnypilot and witness the future of a distributed, decentralized self-driving car platform together.

How to Contribute to sunnypilot

Development Process

• master: Primary development branch. All Pull Requests are merged here for future releases. CI automatically strips, minifies, and pushes changes to staging-c3. Running the master branch on your device is not recommended.
• staging-c3: Pre-release testing branch. Community feedback is essential to identify issues before public release.
• release-c3: Stable release branch. After testing on staging-c3, updates are pushed here and published publicly.

Testers

• dev-c3: Experimental branch with the latest features and bug fixes brought in manually. Expect bugs and breaking changes. Your feedback is invaluable. Testers, even without software development experience, are encouraged to run this branch and report issues.

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Updated: July 29, 2024