you are free to choose your prison, yes

You are free to go without money and have no obligations.

However, you are not free to force others to pay for you to do that; and that's what you're asking for.

I think their strategy is selling the technology to car manufacturers and investors not average people.

They have a "Shop" button on their homepage that lets anyone buy their product for installation on their own car. I had a coworker purchase Comma.ai + a specific make/model solely for its Comma.ai compatibility last year. Average people are getting in on this, for the better or (likely) worse.

But isn't the real value the data they gather to train their models? This is where to money is.

Reminds me of the book "The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work".

Just because you are a good engineer, does not mean you are a good entrepreneur. Most engineers think it's just about building a good product. This is not true.

It actually is entirely about building a good product if by good product you mean something people want.

Building a good product will get you a pat on the back. What you need is a good product + leverage. http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html

If no one links to your good product, it's not in the webgraph.

If your product makes money that is irrelevant.