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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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 434 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Notice how they're mad at the video and not the car, manufacturer, or the CEO. It's a huge safety issue yet they'd rather defend a brand that obviously doesn't even care about their safety. Like, nobody is gonna give you a medal for being loyal to a brand.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 days ago

To be fair, and ugh, I hate to have to stand up for these assholes, but...

To be fair, their claim is that the video was a lie and that the results were manufactured. They believe that Teslas are actually safe and that Rober was doing some kind of Elon Musk takedown trying to profit off the shares getting tanked and promote a rival company.

They actually do have a little bit of evidence for those claims:

  1. The wall changes between different camera angles. In some angles the wall is simply something painted on canvas. In other angles it's a solid styrofoam wall.
  2. The inside the car view in the YouTube video doesn't make it clear that autopilot mode is engaged.
  3. Mark Rober chose to use Autopilot mode rather than so-called Full Self Driving.

But, he was interviewed about this, and he provided additional footage to clear up what happened.

  1. They did the experiment twice, once with a canvas wall, then a few weeks later with a styrofoam wall. The car smashed right into the wall the first time, but it wasn't very dramatic because the canvas just blew out of the way. They wanted a more dramatic video for YouTube, so they did it again with a styrofoam wall so you could see the wall getting smashed. This included pre-weakening the wall so that when the car hit it, it smashed a dramatic Looney-Tunes looking hole in the wall. When they made the final video, they included various cuts from both the first and second attempts. The car hit the wall both times, but it wasn't just one single hit like it was shown in the video.

  2. There's apparently a "rainbow" path shown when the car is in Autopilot mode. [RAinbows1?!? DEI!?!?!?!] In the cut they posted to YouTube, you couldn't see this rainbow path. But, Rober posted a longer cut of the car hitting the wall where it was visible. So, it wasn't that autopilot was off, but in the original YouTube video you couldn't tell.

  3. He used Autopilot mode because from his understanding (as a Tesla owner (this was his personal vehicle being tested)), Full Self Driving requires you to enter a destination address. He just wanted to drive down a closed highway at high speed, so he used Autopilot instead. In his understanding as a Tesla owner and engineer, there would be no difference in how the car dealt with obstacles in autopilot mode vs. full self driving, but he admitted that he hadn't tested it, so it's possible that so-called Full Self-Driving would have handled things differently.

Anyhow, these rabid MAGA Elon Fanboys did pick up on some minor inconsistencies in his original video. Rober apprently didn't realize what a firestorm he was wading into. His intention was to make a video about how cool LIDAR is, but with a cool scene of a car smashing through a wall as the hook. He'd apparently been planning and filming the video for half a year, and he claims it just happened to get released right at the height of the time when Teslas are getting firebombed.

[–] rageagainstmachines@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Always be wary of people who are angered by facts.

[–] booly@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Kinda depends on the fact, right? Plenty of factual things piss me off, but I'd argue I'm correct to be pissed off about them.

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

Right. Just because sometimes we have to accept something, doesn't mean we have to like it.

(Though the other commenter implied people commonly or always angered by fact, but then we have nothing to talk about.)

[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 21 points 3 days ago

They're mad at themselves and taking it out on others.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

me waving a little handheld flag on a tiny pole that just says "Brand loyalty"

........what? No medal???

[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 50 points 3 days ago (4 children)

The styrofoam wall had a pre-cut hole to weaken it, and some people are using it as a gotcha proving the video was faked. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

[–] scops@reddthat.com 28 points 3 days ago (1 children)

For more background, Rober gave an interview and admitted that they ran the test twice. On the first run, the wall was just fabric, which did not tear away in a manner that was visually striking. They went back three weeks later and built a styrofoam wall knowing that the Tesla would fail, and pre-cut the wall to create a more interesting impact.

[–] Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Particularly disappointing part of that interview was Rober saying he still plans to buy a new Tesla. Safety issues aside, why would anyone want to do that?

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world -3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Because the car actually does stop for things that aren't fake walls made to look like a road, and at least for people as tested by testing agencies

This is the euro NCAP testing.

https://youtu.be/4Hsb-0v95R4

Note: not all of these cars have lidar, but some do.

[–] 5in1k@lemm.ee -1 points 3 days ago

Creepy Mormon bros are crypto fascists.

[–] hovercat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 3 days ago

Knowing the insanity of die-hard Tesla fans, it's likely to try and protect himself.

"I love my Tesla, but" has been a meme for years now because if you ever went on forums to get help or complain what a giant heap of shit the car was, and didn't bookend it with unabashed praise, you'd have people ripping you to shreds calling you a FUDster and Big Oil shill who's shorting the stock and trying to destroy the greatest company the world has ever known.

People have learned over the years that even with the most valid of criticism for the company, the only way to even attempt to have it received is by showing just how much you actually love Tesla and Daddy Elon, and your complaints/criticism are only because you care so much about the company and want them to do better. Yes, it's fucking stupid and annoying, but sadly this is the reality we've created for ourselves.

[–] samus12345@lemm.ee 17 points 3 days ago

Yeah, because he knew that thing probably wasn't gonna stop. Why destroy the car when you don't have to? Concrete wouldn't have changed the outcome.

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 53 points 3 days ago

Yeah, but it's styrofoam. You could literally run through it. And I'm sure they did that more as a safety measure so that it was guaranteed to collapse so nobody would be injured.

But at the same time it still drove through a fucking wall. The integrity doesn't mean shit because it drove through a literal fucking wall.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Sounds like Rober gets to repeat this with a cinderblock wall and use the car as a tax write off then.

[–] rocket_dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 47 points 3 days ago

Sounds like Tesla fans should repeat this with cinderblock walls to show us how fake it was.

[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Hopefully with a Mythbusters-style remote control setup in case it explodes. And the trunk filled with ANFO to make sure it does.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 163 points 3 days ago (4 children)

These people haven't found any individual self identity.

An attack on the brand is an attack on them. Reminds me of the people who made Stars Wars their meaning and crumbled when a certain trilogy didn't hold up.

[–] jumperalex@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)

So literally every single above average sports fan?

The pathological need to be part of a group so bad it overwhelmes all reason is a feature I have yet to understand. And I say that as someone who can recognize in myself those moments when I feel the pull to be part of an in group.

That’s just tribalism in general. Humans are tribal by nature as a survival mechanism. In modern culture, that manifests as behaviors like being a rabid sports fan.

[–] DogWater@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

It's evolutionary. Humans are social pack animals. The need for inclusion was evolved into us over however many years.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 88 points 3 days ago (3 children)

An attack on the brand is an attack on them.

Thus it ever is with Conservatives. They make $whatever their whole identity, and so take any critique of $whatever as a personal attack against themselves.

I blame evangelical religions' need for martyrdom for this.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” ― Barry Goldwater

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Nice variable.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. These people have no identity or ability to think for themselves because they never needed either one. The church will do all your thinking for you, and anything it doesn't cover will be handled by Fox News. Be like everyone else and fit in, otherwise... you have to start thinking for yourself. THE HORROR.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 40 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The term you are looking for is “external locus of identity”. And, yes.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Important to note, this is a human weakness and not a <political group that isn't mine> weakness.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Agreed. You'll see it more often associate with religion.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago
[–] fylkenny@feddit.org 15 points 3 days ago

And an attack on the stocks they bought