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MVL edited this page Nov 27, 2025 · 40 revisions

honda acura

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Make-Specific Terms

For general terms, go here.

Term Abbreviation Definition
Honda Sensing Sensing What Honda calls their ADAS system which provides things such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, road departure mitigation, and lane departure warning.
Acura Watch Acura Watch What Acura calls their ADAS system which provides things such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, road departure mitigation, and lane departure warning.
Honda Bosch Bosch Bosch is a company Honda uses to provide their ADAS systems. Experimental mode, when enabled on the nightly-dev branch or some community forks, does support many Bosch cars, but the experience is less-than-perfect (0.9.1). Release versions of openpilot do not support openpilot longitudinal, but can sometimes (depending on model) steer down to a lower mph than Honda Nidec vehicles.
Honda Nidec Nidec Nidec is a company Honda uses to provide their ADAS systems. Nidec cars support openpilot longitudinal in release versions of openpilot. Nidec hardware is being phased out company-wide in favor of the Bosch system.
Rewrite Honda EPS RWD Part of the Honda Diagnostic System (HDS) software is a tool to flash firmware updates (J2534 Rewrite application) and a set of firmware update files. See https://github.com/gregjhogan/rwd-xray/blob/master/README.md

openpilot Capabilities

Lateral Control (Steering)

Torque

Honda vehicles suffer from a low amount of steering torque that can be applied by openpilot, although torque has improved in some recent model years. Hondas with openpilot are best suited to highways and generally straight roads. They can typically make gradual turns at high speeds but may require reduced speed to successfully navigate sharper turns.

Minimum Speeds

Depending on the vehicle model, openpilot cannot steer the car at speeds below 3mph or 15mph or 43mph. When traveling below the minimum steering speed, the driver must take control of the steering wheel.

Longitudinal Control (Gas and Brakes)

Honda Bosch

With alpha longitudinal mode enabled on the nightly-dev branch, acceleration and braking can be controlled on Bosch ADAS-based vehicles (excluding Bosch C). This experience can be rather jerky (0.9.8), although community forks can resolve the jerkiness.

Release versions of openpilot don't yet control acceleration on Bosch ADAS-based vehicles. The radar accepts commands and visual information from the factory windshield-mounted camera assembly which then commands the vehicle's acceleration and braking accordingly. Openpilot controls steering. The factory Bosch radar does not output object data like other makes/models (including Honda Nidec).

Manual transmission models support acceleration and braking control above 25mph, while the driver manually shifts gears. With alpha longitudinal mode enabled on the nightly-dev branch, acceleration and braking can be controlled at all speeds.

Honda Nidec

Depending on the model, openpilot will not support stop and go (titled "Low-Speed Follow" by Honda). openpilot does not have direct control over forward acceleration like other models, so it instead uses the factory built-in control system by commanding the desired vehicle speed. If improved acceleration or acceleration control is desired, the community-only supported comma pedal interceptor is required (see below. Not sold or built by comma.ai). openpilot, however, does have full braking control on these cars.

Community Features

enhancements to steering and longitudinal control

Community forks often implement improvements to steering, gas, and brake control for Honda models. In addition, community forks can enable experimental mode on Honda Bosch C cars.

Join the #honda-acura channel on discord with questions.

comma pedal

Allows Nidec Hondas without cruise control capable of Low-Speed Follow to gain stop-and-go functionality by using openpilot with a device plugged into the accelerator pedal.

Community-Supported Models

The #honda-acura channel on discord maintains a google sheets document with community supported cars. Almost every car with Honda Sensing or AcuraWatch is community supported.

Comma.ai maintains a compatibility list of officially supported cars.

Honda Clarity and Acura RLX

The Honda Clarity and Acura RLX have one extra CAN bus at the camera connector. Due to this, they need custom hardware and a custom fork to run.

Join the #honda-acura channel on discord with questions.

Serial Steering

There are some Honda/Acura with Honda Sensing/AcuraWatch that are not currently supported due to using dedicated serial data lines for its steering control messages. These cars can work with openpilot using additional hardware and minor software modifications. Community Maintained forks are available.

Below is the list of 'serial steering' cars:

  • 2016/2017 Accord
  • 14-20 Acura MDX
  • 15-20 Acura TLX

Join the #topic-serial-steering channel on discord with questions.

Unsupported EV Models manufactured by GM

The Honda Prologue and 2024 Acura ZDX are manufactured by GM, using their Global B architecture. These models are not supported due to the encryption in the Global B CAN bus.

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