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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[–] get_the_reference_@midwest.social 9 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

E. Lon Musk. Supah. Geenius.

[–] emberpunk@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 hours ago
[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 35 points 6 hours ago (4 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.

[–] cortex7979@lemm.ee 3 points 42 minutes ago

That's so wrong holy shit

[–] LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 5 hours ago (4 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.

[–] Krzd@lemmy.world 3 points 2 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 5 points 4 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 3 points 4 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 4 points 5 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

[–] Tungsten5@lemm.ee 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

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

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[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 24 points 10 hours ago (4 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

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I'd take that bet. I imagine at least some drivers would notice something sus' (due to depth perception, which should be striking as you get close, or lack of ANY movement or some kind of reflection) and either

  • slow down
  • use a trick, e.g. flicking lights or driving a bit to the sides and back, to try to see what's off

or probably both, but anyway as other already said, it's being compared to other autopilot systems, not human drivers.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 16 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 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 7 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 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 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The tesla would lose its shit if it sees this

[–] T156@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

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

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[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 38 points 11 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 5 points 6 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 100 points 13 hours ago (17 children)

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

[–] rbm4444@lemmy.world 13 points 7 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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[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 32 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

And the president is driving one of these?

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

[–] LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.ee 14 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 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 13 hours ago (8 children)

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 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

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 4 hours ago (1 children)

Current and past presidents are prohibited from driving.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 points 4 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)

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[–] Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca 30 points 13 hours ago

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

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