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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[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 141 points 3 days ago (9 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.

[–] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 40 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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.

That is like writing musk made an awkward, confused gesture during a time a few people might call questionable timing and place.

[–] cortex7979@lemm.ee 33 points 3 days ago

That's so wrong holy shit

[–] LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 3 days ago (7 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.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 31 points 3 days ago (7 children)

if it can actually sense a crash is imminent, why wouldn't it be programmed to slam the brakes instead of just turning off?

Do they have a problem with false positives?

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[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 20 points 2 days ago (6 children)

I can’t wait for all this brand loyalty and fan people culture to end. Why is this even a thing? Like talking about box office results, companies financials and stocks…. If you’re not an investor of theirs, just stop. It sounds like you’re working for free for them.

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[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 157 points 3 days ago (59 children)

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

[–] rbm4444@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days 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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[–] Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee 15 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Of course it disengages self driving modes before an impact. Why would they want to be liable for absolutely anything?

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[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 287 points 4 days ago (35 children)

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.

This has been known.

They do it so they can evade liability for the crash.

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[–] yarr@feddit.nl 18 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Does anyone else get the heebies with Mark Rober? There's something a little off about his smile and overall presence.

[–] FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, he's over-positive, it's unnerving.

Still, that video is good anti-musk press.

[–] Soleos@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

The hyper-positivity and enthusiasm is because his content is aimed at kids as much as it is adults. A lot of kid-oriented science content I remember, from tv shows/documentaries to guest speakers, to science-centre guides had that affect.

[–] JokklMaster@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I believe he's one of the very many YouTubers who's a Mormon.

Edit: https://youtu.be/3Bcn0TFAi6E

[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

Did you know he used to work at NASA? He very rarely mentions it. /s

[–] zzx@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 434 points 4 days ago (18 children)

Notice how they're mad at the video and not the car, manufacturer, or the CEO. It's a huge safety issue yet they'd rather defend a brand that obviously doesn't even care about their safety. Like, nobody is gonna give you a medal for being loyal to a brand.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 163 points 4 days ago (12 children)

These people haven't found any individual self identity.

An attack on the brand is an attack on them. Reminds me of the people who made Stars Wars their meaning and crumbled when a certain trilogy didn't hold up.

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[–] arc@lemm.ee 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I saw the video and I have two points:

  1. Yes it plays like an infomercial for lidar. So take that portion with some skepticism. I can think of some issues exclusive to lidar like 2+ lidar cars blinding each other which needs to be solved, e.g. some kind of light pattern encoding to mask out unwanted signals.
  2. It absolutely 100% demonstrates the issue with camera-only technology in Tesla vehicles.

Teslas used to have cameras + radar but they cheaped out and removed the radar. I think it would have passed all the tests if they still had the front facing radar but they don't. The problem with cameras alone is obvious - they can't see what they can't see and probably don't have an innate sense to slow down if there is rain, fog, ice or whatever else that might cause a human to.

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[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago (5 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.

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[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 130 points 4 days ago (5 children)

"Dipshit Nazis mad at facts bursting their bubble is unreality" is another way of reading this headline.

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[–] get_the_reference_@midwest.social 25 points 3 days ago (4 children)

E. Lon Musk. Supah. Geenius.

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[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 41 points 3 days ago (21 children)

And the president is driving one of these?

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

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[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 190 points 4 days ago (16 children)

I wondered how the hell it managed to fool LIDAR, well...

The stunt was meant to demonstrate the shortcomings of relying entirely on cameras — rather than the LIDAR and radar systems used by brands and autonomous vehicle makers other than Tesla.

[–] Weirdfish@lemmy.world 162 points 4 days ago

If I could pass one law, requiring multiple redundant scanning tech on anything autonomous large enough to hurt me might be it.

I occasionally go to our warehouses which have robotic arms, autonomous fork lifts, etc. All of those have far more saftey features than a self driving Tesla, and they aren't in public.

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 133 points 4 days ago (12 children)

The tl;dr here is that Elon said that humans have eyes and they work, and eyes are like cameras, so use cameras instead of expensive LIDAR. Dick fully inside car door for the slam.

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[–] mrodri89@lemmy.zip 61 points 4 days ago (3 children)

If you get any strong emotions on material shit when someone makes a video...you have 0 of my respect. Period.

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[–] Cantaloupe877@lemmy.world 42 points 3 days ago (3 children)
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[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 117 points 4 days ago (40 children)

Why would a car that expensive not have a LiDAR sensor?

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[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 24 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (11 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

Edit: having just watched the video, that was a very obvious fake wall. You can see the outlines of it pretty well. I'm also surprised it failed other tests when not on autopilot, seems pretty fucking dangerous.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 29 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days 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.

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.

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Watch the video it's extremely obvious to a human driver that there is something wrong with that view ahead. It's even pointed out in the video that humans use additional visual clues when a situation is ambiguous.

The cars don't have deduction and reasoning capabilities so they need additional sensors to give them more information to compensate due to their lack of brains. So it's not really sensible to compare self-driving systems to humans. Humans have limited sensory input but it's compensated for by reasoning abilities, Self-Driving cars do not have reasoning abilities but it's compensated for by enhanced sensory input.

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[–] Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca 30 points 3 days ago

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

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