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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[–] RobotZap10000@feddit.nl 135 points 15 hours ago (3 children)
[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 24 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (3 children)

The actual wall is way more convincing though.

[–] Gonzako@lemmy.world 29 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

still, this should be something the car ought to take into account. What if there's a glass in the way?

[–] mearce@programming.dev 6 points 10 hours ago

Glass would be very interesting, might actually confuse lidar also.

[–] BennyInc@feddit.org 13 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

That might have been an even „simpler“ test.

[–] gratux@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, but Styrofoam probably damages the car less than shards of glass.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago

Glass is far more likely to cause injuries to the driver or the people around the set, just from being heavier material than styrofoam.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

Yes, I think a human driver who isn't half asleep would notice that something is weird, and would at least slow down.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 1 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

A camera will show it as being more convincing than it is. It would be way more obvious in real life when seen with two eyes. These kinds of murals are only convincing from one specific point.

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

…and clearly this photo wasn’t the point. In fact, it looks like a straight road from one of the camera angles he chooses later, not afaict from the pov of the car

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

That's true, but it's still way more understandable that a car without lidar would be fooled by it. And there is no way you would ever come into such a situation, whereas the image in the thumbnail, could actually happen. That's why it's so misleading, can people not see that?
I absolutely hate Elon Musk and support boycott of Tesla and Starlink, but this is a bit too misleading even with that in mind.

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

So, your comment got me thinking... surely, in a big country like the US of A, this mural must actually exist already, right?

Of course it does. It is an art piece in Columbia, S.C: https://img.atlasobscura.com/90srIbBi-XX-H9u6i_RykKIinRXlpclCHtk-QPSHixk/rt:fit/w:1200/q:80/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL3BsYWNl/X2ltYWdlcy85ZTUw/M2ZkZDAxZjVhN2Rm/NmVfOTIyNjQ4NjQ0/OF80YWVhNzFkZjY0/X3ouanBn.webp

A full article about it: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tunnelvision

How would Tesla FSD react to Tunnelvision, I wonder? How would Tesla FSD react to an overturned semi truck with a realistic depiction of a highway on it? JK, Tesla FSD crashes directly into overturned semis even without the image depiction issue.

I don't think the test is misleading. It's puffed up for entertainment purposes, but in being puffed up, it draws attention to an important drawback of optical-only self-driving cars, which is otherwise a difficult and arcane topic to draw everyday people's attention to.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 45 minutes ago)

Good find, I must say I'm surprised that's legal, but it's probably more obvious in reality, and it has the sun which is probably also pretty obvious to a human.
But it might fool the Tesla?

Regarding the semi video: WTF?
But I've said for years that Tesla cars aren't safe for roads. And that's not just the FSD, they are inherently unsafe in many really really stupid ways.
Blinker buttons on the steering wheel. Hidden emergency door handles, emergency breaking for no reason. Distracting screen interface. In Denmark 30% of Tesla 3 fail their first 4 year safety check.
There have been stats publicized that claim they aren't worse than other cars, when in fact "other cars" were an average of 10 year older. So the newer cars obviously ought to be safer because they should be in better conditions.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I'm so glad I wasn't the only person who immediately thought "This is some Wile E. Coyote shit."

[–] tja@sh.itjust.works 37 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, it is also referenced in the article and even in the summary from OP.

And extensively in the video too.