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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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[-] get_the_reference_@midwest.social 19 points 8 hours ago

E. Lon Musk. Supah. Geenius.

[-] Retrograde@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago
[-] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 52 minutes ago

Will he Ket o' won't he?

[-] emberpunk@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 hours ago
[-] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 49 minutes ago

"They only paid me to say it once..."

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 70 points 10 hours ago

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 7 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour 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 19 points 4 hours ago

That's so wrong holy shit

[-] LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 9 hours ago

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 15 points 3 hours ago

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?

[-] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 hour ago

if it was european made, it would slam the brakes or swerve in order to at least try and save lives since governments attempt to regulate companies to not do evil shit. Since it american made it is designed to maximise profit for shareholders.

[-] Whelks_chance@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

I've been wondering this for years now. Do we need intelligence in crashes, or do we just need vehicles to stop? I think you're right, it must have been slamming the brakes on at unexpected times, which is unnerving when driving I'm sure.

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

So they had an issue with the car slamming on the brakes at unexpected times, caused by misidentifying cracks in the road or glare or weird lighting or w/e. The solution was to make the cameras ignore anything they can't recognize at high speeds. This resulted in Teslas plowing into the back of firetrucks.

As the article mentioned, other self-driving cars solved that with lidar, which elon himself is against because he says AI will just get so good and 2d cameras are cheaper.

[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago

This is from 6 years ago. I haven't heard of the issue more recently

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2023/tesla-autopilot-crash-analysis/

The tesla did not consistently detect that the thing infront of it was a truck, so it didn't brake. Also, this describes a lot of similar cases.

I remember a youtuber doing similar tests, where they'd try to run over a fake pedestrian crossing or standing in the road at low speed, and then high speed. It would often stop at low speed, but very rarely stopped or swerved at high speed.

[-] Krzd@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

Wouldn't it make more sense for autopilot to brake and try to stop the car instead of just turning off and letting the car roll? If it's certain enough that there will be an accident, just applying the brakes until there's user override would make much more sense..

[-] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 8 hours 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.

[-] T156@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours 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.

[-] Tungsten5@lemm.ee 5 points 9 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

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

..... It shutting off before hand feels like a cheap ploy to avoid guilt

that's exactly what it is.

[-] Tungsten5@lemm.ee 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

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

[-] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 1 points 9 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.

[-] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 39 points 15 hours 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.

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 10 points 10 hours ago

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

[-] demizerone@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

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 7 points 8 hours 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 34 points 17 hours ago

And the president is driving one of these?

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

[-] LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee 16 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 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!"

[-] Chewget@lemm.ee 18 points 17 hours ago

The president can't drive by law unless on the grounds of the White House and maybe Camp David. At least while in office. They might be allowed to drive after leaving office...

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

This isn't true at all. I can't tell if you're being serious or incredibly sarcastic, though.

The reason presidents (and generally ex presidents, too) don't drive themselves is because the kind of driving to escape an assassination attempt is a higher level of driving and training than what the vast majority of people ever have. There's no law saying presidents are forbidden from driving.

In any case, I would be perfectly happy if they let him drive a CT and it caught fire. I'd do a little jib, and I wouldn't care who sees that.

[-] RalphWolf@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

Current and past presidents are prohibited from driving.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

you're gonna have to drop a source for that.

because, no, they're not. the Secret Service provides a driver specially trained for the risks a president might face, and very strongly insists, but they're not "prohibited" from driving simply because they're presidents.

to be clear, the secret service cannot prohibit the president from doing anything they really want to do. Even if it's totally stupid for them to do that. (This includes, for example, Trump's routine weekend round of golf at Turd-o-Lardo)

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

to be clear, the secret service cannot prohibit the president from doing anything they really want to do

Was Trump lying when he said the SS wouldn't take him back to the capital on Jan 6?

I could definitely see him lying about that so he doesn't look like he abandoned his supporters during the coup, but I could also see the driver being like "I can't endanger you, mr president" and ignoring his requests.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Was Trump lying when he said the SS wouldn’t take him back to the capital on Jan 6?

Definitely not. There is no way in hell the secret service would have taken the president to that shit show. Doesn't mean that they would have physically arrested him if he insisted going on his own, however.

[-] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 14 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

I don't think Trump can drive. As in, he doesn't even know what the pedals do.

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[-] Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca 29 points 17 hours ago

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

[-] Cantaloupe877@lemmy.world 38 points 19 hours ago
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this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
1298 points (100.0% liked)

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