this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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1471
Self-Driving Tesla Crashes into Wall Painted to Look Like a Road… Just Months Before Planned Robotaxi Launch (fuelarc.com)
submitted 1 day ago by KayLeadfoot@fedia.io to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Mark Rober just set up one of the most interesting self-driving tests of 2025, and he did it by imitating Looney Tunes. The former NASA engineer and current YouTube mad scientist recreated the classic gag where Wile E. Coyote paints a tunnel onto a wall to fool the Road Runner.

Only this time, the test subject wasn’t a cartoon bird… it was a self-driving Tesla Model Y.

The result? A full-speed, 40 MPH impact straight into the wall. Watch the video and tell us what you think!

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[–] Jeffool@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

This would be hilarious if it weren't for shitty cars causing deaths.

That said, I always wondered why we don't find a system like RFID that could penetrate concrete and asphalt, and plant passive receivers in roads? We re-pave roads so damn often in this country (the U.S.) it seems like we could've knocked it out in the past couple of decades, minus our most rural areas.

I know RFID itself isn't strong enough, but I imagine that would've been an easier problem than figuring our complete self driving. Not to mention making GPS a secondary system for U.S. road travel in most cases.

Maybe it's just a dumb shower thought?

[–] bufalo1973@lemm.ee 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I have another idea: echolocation and laser measurement.

[–] Jeffool@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know the value of echolocation in this case, as I'm generally ignorant here, but it's straight wild to me that they went purely on visuals.

[–] dan@upvote.au 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Tesla used to also have radar (and maybe lidar?) but they removed it as a cost cutting measure. If you ever see older videos of a Tesla slowing down or stopping due to a potential collision a few cars ahead, that's from before they switched to only relying on cameras. The collision avoidance was significantly better back then.