this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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In the piece — titled "Can You Fool a Self Driving Car?" — Rober found that a Tesla car on Autopilot was fooled by a Wile E. Coyote-style wall painted to look like the road ahead of it, with the electric vehicle plowing right through it instead of stopping.

The footage was damning enough, with slow-motion clips showing the car not only crashing through the styrofoam wall but also a mannequin of a child. The Tesla was also fooled by simulated rain and fog.

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E. Lon Musk. Supah. Geenius.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

I hope some of you actually skimmed the article and got to the "disengaging" part.

As Electrek points out, Autopilot has a well-documented tendency to disengage right before a crash. Regulators have previously found that the advanced driver assistance software shuts off a fraction of a second before making impact.

It's a highly questionable approach that has raised concerns over Tesla trying to evade guilt by automatically turning off any possibly incriminating driver assistance features before a crash.

[–] LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

Don't get me wrong, autopilot turning itself off right before a crash is sus and I wouldn't put it past Tesla to do something like that (I mean come on, why don't they use lidar) but maybe it's so the car doesn't try to power the wheels or something after impact which could potentially worsen the event.

On the other hand, they're POS cars and the autopilot probably just shuts off cause of poor assembly, standards, and design resulting from cutting corners.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Rober seems to think so, since he says in the video that it's likely disengaging because the parking sensors detect that it's parked because of the object in front, and it shuts off the cruise control.

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 hour ago

Normal cars do whatever is in their power to cease movement while facing upright. In a wreck, the safest state for a car is to cease moving.

[–] Tungsten5@lemm.ee 2 points 2 hours ago

I see your point, and it makes sense, but I would be very surprised if Tesla did this. I think the best option would be to turn off the features once an impact is detected. It shutting off before hand feels like a cheap ploy to avoid guilt

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I've heard that too, and I don't doubt it, but watching Mark Rober's video, it seems like he's deathgripping the wheel pretty hard before the impact which seems more likely to be disengaging. Each time, you can see the wheel tug slightly to the left, but his deathgrip pulls it back to the right.

[–] Tungsten5@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

It always is that way; fuck the consumer, its all about making a buck

[–] Alloi@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

well, if they want to use military cyber trucks to invade canada, at least we know how to stop them lol.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 21 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

To be fair, if you were to construct a wall and paint it exactly like the road, people will run into it as well. That being said, tesla shouldn't rely on cameras

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 10 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

To be fair, if you were to construct a wall and paint it exactly like the road, people will run into it as well.

this isn't being fair. It's being compared to the other- better- autopilot systems that use both LIDAR and radar in addition to daylight and infrared optical to sense the world around them.

Teslas only use daylight and infrared. LIDAR and radar systems both would not have been deceived.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

The video does bring up human ability too with the fog test ("Optically, with my own eyes, I can no longer see there's a kid through this fog. The lidar has no issue.") But, as they show, this wall is extremely obvious to the driver.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The tesla would lose its shit if it sees this

[–] T156@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

They already have trouble enough with trucks carrying traffic lights, or with speed limit drivers on them.

[–] TorJansen@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 hours ago

Yeah, the Roadrunner could easily skip by such barriers, frustrating the Coyote to no end. Tesla is not a Roadrunner.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 35 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

It's a highly questionable approach that has raised concerns over Tesla trying to evade guilt by automatically turning off any possibly incriminating driver assistance features before a crash.

So, who's the YouTuber that's gonna test this out? Since Elmo has pushed his way into the government in order to quash any investigation into it.

[–] bay400@thelemmy.club 2 points 3 hours ago

It basically already happened in the Mark Rober video, it turns off by itself less than a second before hitting

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 95 points 10 hours ago (15 children)

My 500$ robot vacuum has LiDAR, meanwhile these 50k pieces of shit don't 😂

[–] rbm4444@lemmy.world 12 points 4 hours ago

Holy shit, I knew I'd heard this word before. My Chinese robot vacuum cleaner has more technology than a tesla hahahahaha

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[–] demizerone@lemmy.world -2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

It was super annoying how scared he acted when he knew it was styrofoam and it wasn't even going to leave a scratch on the car. I would have like it much better if the car crashed into and actual wall and burst into flames.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Instinctively, human brains generally don't like large objects coming to them unbidden at high speed. That isn't going to help things, even if you're consciously aware that the wall is relatively harmless.

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 30 points 10 hours ago (12 children)

And the president is driving one of these?

Maybe we should be purchasing lots of paint and cement blockades...

[–] LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee 12 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

When he was in the Tesla asking if he should go for a ride I was screaming "Yes! Yes Mr. President! Please! Elon, show him full self driving on the interstate! Show him full self driving mode!"

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[–] Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca 29 points 10 hours ago

If you own a tesla or a cybertruck you deserve it.

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