AUSTIN, Texas—At the first day of the SXSW Interactive festival, George “Geohot” Hotz announced an updated business plan for his company Comma.ai, all while revealing a new piece of hardware that will be given away, as opposed to sold: the Panda.

Sam Machkovech

The small circuit-board device comes with an ODB2 connector on one end, which Hotz described as compatible with any car made after 1996 (though ideal for cars made later than 2006), and a USB port on the other. The device’s crowded circuit board also includes a 32-bit processor, a Wi-Fi driver, and a 4A charger, which he described as “an awesome phone charger.” Hotz said the Panda can be used to expose more active car data than the ODB2 plug-in devices used by apps such as Torque, including individual wheel speeds, steering wheel angles, blinker functions, and even the ability to issue accelerator and brake commands to a car.