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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[–] [email protected] 16 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Suddenly, there are more Yellow Brick Road murals everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (3 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?

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago

+1...a classic!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Who the hell is Wyle E. Coyote?

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 18 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 12 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 27 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

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

The first, in fact.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 17 hours 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

[–] [email protected] 30 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 15 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 60 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 18 hours ago

Who owns the White House right now?

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

This is like the crash on a San Francisco bridge that happened because of a Tesla that went into a tunnel and it wasn’t sure what to do since it went from bright daylight to darkness. In this case the Tesla just suddenly merged lanes and then immediately stopped and caused a multi car pile up.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 20 hours ago (8 children)

You'd think they have cameras with higher dynamic range and faster auto exposure in their cars by now. Nope, still penny pinching.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 20 hours ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 16 hours ago

A fitting metaphor for Musky and their involvement with the US government.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 21 hours ago (13 children)

There's a very simple solution to autonomous driving vehicles plowing into walls, cars, or people:

Congress will pass a law that makes NOBODY liable -- as long as a human wasn't involved in the decision making process during the incident.

This will be backed by car makers, software providers, and insurance companies, who will lobby hard for it. After all, no SINGLE person or company made the decision to swerve into oncoming traffic. Surely they can't be held liable. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Once that happens, Level 4 driving will come standard and likely be the default mode on most cars. Best of luck everyone else!

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