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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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 92 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (23 children)

This is a very good test, and the car should have past. That said though, I hate the click bait format where they show a stupidly obvious cartoonish wall, when the real wall is way more convincing.

The Video:

That sort of clickbait is 100% sure to get a "do not recommend channel" from me, I'm so sick of it. And it's sad when the video has such a good point.

The Clickbait

I can see it's kind of funny, but it's misleading.

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 32 points 15 hours ago (23 children)

You realize Mark Robers target audience is like 8 years old, right? He also references looney tunes and wile e coyote a couple dozen times, including in this thumbnail you're losing your mind over. The thumbnail fits the theme very well if you ask me.

This video isn't a rigorous scientific test. This is a children's video designed to get them interested in the scientific method. Get over yourself.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 8 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

IMO it doesn't need to be a rigorous scientific test, it's not trying to prove something works as it should under all conditions. It's showing the exact opposite, it does not work under this one condition, which is more than enough to disprove the safety of the car.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

More than one test failed.

The Tesla failed the heavy rain and the heavy fog tests.

There's zero excuse to fail either of those tests. But the Tesla killed the kid both times.

The wall test was just to show that the Tesla cannot put together optical clues.

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[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 89 points 18 hours ago (8 children)

YouTubers - especially large channels like this - constantly A/B test with different thumbnails and stick with whatever one drives the most traffic (no pun intended) to the video.

You might not like it, but it’s unfortunately the reality of operating a content creation business on an algorithm-driven platform.

There are plenty of channels I follow that make fantastic videos, but sometimes you have to tolerate the shitty thumbnails because that’s just the reality of the system they’re operating within.

[–] Tanoh@lemmy.world 14 points 15 hours ago

Yeah, that is just how youtube works. You as an individual can say you don't like annoying thumbnails and titles, but they 100% work. And channels that don't use them are just not getting as many viewers.

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[–] SloppyPuppy@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

Well if your thumbnail is not good enough and catchy people will not watch it. Which wont make the channel profitable. Which will cause it to not exist.

I hope you know that usually youtubers will not even start making the video if they don’t have a killer thumbnail to it. Thats the platform.

[–] Maestro@fedia.io 47 points 17 hours ago (22 children)

Have you heard of DeArrow? https://dearrow.ajay.app/

It's a browser extension that replaces clickbait thumbnails with good community sourced ones

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[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

That's more a product if the yt algorithm. For every one like you that is annoyed by the clickbait, there are a million others instantly clicking with no further thought. So if you don't do that, you're losing money.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Maybe, but it's not because of me people get shitty links.

[–] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 15 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

Still astounded people use anything other than the subscription section on YouTube.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

History turned off, subscriptions only for me.

We are in a tiny, tiny minority.

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[–] amorpheus@lemmy.world 17 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (2 children)

At this point everyone should know that YouTube thumbnails have no requirement for accuracy. It's more like an album cover.

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[–] Xbeam@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

You shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

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