this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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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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[–] blady_blah@lemmy.world 44 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Honestly all the fails with the kid dummy were a way bigger deal than the wall test. The kid ones will happen a hundred times more than the wall scenario.

Some sort of radar or lidar should 100% be required on autonomous cars.

[–] whome@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I think insurances will require that is it comes to self driving at least here in Europe.

[–] DogEarBookmark@reddthat.com 7 points 16 hours ago

EU leading the world in consumer protection laws yet again

[–] Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

I fully agree, but sadly, investors likely care more about their cars hitting walls than hitting kids. Killing a kid or pedestrian in the US is often a very cheap fine. When my uncle was run over on a sidewalk next to his son, the police ruled it an accident and the city refused to do anything. Same thing happened when my friend was ran over in a bike lane.... So killing humans is probably cheaper than hitting a wall.

[–] shawn1122@lemm.ee 9 points 20 hours ago

Interesting that in the most consumerist nation on earth, objects have more value than people.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 12 points 20 hours ago

Yep, I could see someone placing a billboard like that with a cliff behind it.

[–] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)
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[–] conicalscientist@lemmy.world 75 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Anyone with half a brain could tell you plain cameras is a non-starter. This is nearly a Juicero level blunder. Tesla is not a serious car company nor tech company. If markets were rational it would have been the end for Tesla.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 16 points 1 day ago

If markets were rational, CEO compensation would never have grown so high, and there'd be no billionaires either.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Austin should just pull the permits until all the taxis have lidar installed and tested. Or write a bill that fines the manufacturer $100 billion for any self driving car that kills a person and puts the proceeds 50% to the family and 50% to infrastructure. One of the first rules of robotics was always about not harming humans.

[–] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

One of the first rules of robotics was always about not harming humans.

The first, in fact.

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[–] happydoors@lemm.ee 51 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I love that one of the largest YouTubers is the one that did this. Surely, somebody near our federal government will throw a hissy fit if he hears about this but Mark’s audience is ginormous

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Honestly I think Mark should be more scared of Disney coming after him for mapping out their space mountain ride.

[–] PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee 10 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

He probably just made Disney admissions and security even more annoying for everyone else.

[–] TheYang@lemmy.world 7 points 16 hours ago

Judging by the fact that he has an imagineer-video out (effectively) at the same time as the space-mountain mapping, I'd expect that Disney was fully aware of what he was doing, and the whole sneaky-thing was just to make it more appealing to viewers.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Suddenly, there are more Yellow Brick Road murals everywhere.

[–] icecream@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (2 children)

A building owner would not want cars crashing into their property though. Why would they get a mural to intentionally deceive a robot car?

[–] Retropunk64@lemm.ee 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Because its fucking funny.

[–] PokerChips@programming.dev 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

And the driver will have to pay to rebuild it anyway

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[–] rational_lib@lemmy.world 63 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

The rain test was far more concerning because it's much more realistic of a scenario. Both a normal person and the lidar would've seen the kid and stopped, but the cameras and image processing just isn't good enough to make out a person in the rain. That's bad. The test portrays it as a person in the middle of a straight road, but I don't see why the same thing wouldn't happen at a crosswalk or other place where pedestrians are often in the path of a vehicle. If an autonomous system cannot make out pedestrians in the rain reliably, that alone should be enough to prevent these vehicles from being legal.

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[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 24 points 1 day ago
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