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!

  • MidsizedSedan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    31 minutes ago

    All these years, I always thought all self driving cars used LiDAR or something to see in 3D/through fog. How was this allowed on the roads for so long?

  • blady_blah@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    4 hours ago

    Honestly all the fails with the kid dummy were a way bigger deal than the wall test. The kid ones will happen a hundred times more than the wall scenario.

    Some sort of radar or lidar should 100% be required on autonomous cars.

    • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      3 hours ago

      I fully agree, but sadly, investors likely care more about their cars hitting walls than hitting kids. Killing a kid or pedestrian in the US is often a very cheap fine. When my uncle was run over on a sidewalk next to his son, the police ruled it an accident and the city refused to do anything. Same thing happened when my friend was ran over in a bike lane… So killing humans is probably cheaper than hitting a wall.

      • shawn1122@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        43 minutes ago

        Interesting that in the most consumerist nation on earth, objects have more value than people.

    • icecream@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 hour ago

      A building owner would not want cars crashing into their property though. Why would they get a mural to intentionally deceive a robot car?

  • conicalscientist@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    68
    ·
    10 hours ago

    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.

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      5 hours ago

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

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      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.

  • happydoors@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    10 hours ago

    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

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      7 hours ago

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

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    edit-2
    11 hours ago

    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.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      10 hours ago

      The question there would be does Austin have crosswalks that don’t have red lights. Many places put a light at every cross walk, but not all. Most beaches don’t have them at every crosswalk, they just have laws that if someone is in or entering the crosswalk you have to stop for the pedestrians. (They would all be at risk from what you are saying).

      • booly@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Yes, there are mid-block crosswalks in some of the walkable parts of Austin. There are also roundabouts with yield signs and crosswalks and no lights.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 hours ago

          That will cause huge issues possibly. Do you live near there? We need to get this information to the public in those areas. Even if it is raining. Do not cross without checking over and over. We need to ban them from being there, but we need to protect the people first. 1 life may overturn the law, but 1 life shouldn’t be lost. It’s better we figure out an alternative

      • deltapi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        6 hours ago

        I don’t know the answer to your question, but I’ll add that I’ve seen major cities that have overhead yellow flashing light boxes that mean “you must stop if there is a pedestrian crossing the road”

      • Tot@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Not every pedestrian follows the rules of the lights though. And not every pedestrian makes it across the road in time before the light changes colors from red to green.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 hours ago

          I didn’t say anything about whether it was adequate. The fact is it is going live. Trying to find weak spots and dangerous areas and point them out to people is all we can do at this stage.

  • King3d@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    13 hours ago

    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.

    • fallingcats@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      13 hours ago

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

        • Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          9 hours ago

          Yeah, pulling radar from the cars was the beginning of the end. Early teslas had radar, and that was what led to all of the “car sees something three vehicles ahead and brakes to avoid a pileup that hasn’t even started yet” type of collision avoidance videos. First, pulling radar was a cost cutting thing. Then Elon demanded that they pull out the lidar too, and that’s when their crash numbers skyrocketed.

    • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      7 hours ago

      He is studiously apolitical, the only political comment I could find from him was the very sensible advice that we need to tone down our hyperpartisanship :)

      https://x.com/MarkRober/status/1641487680168153089?lang=en

      For me, I criticize any vehicle that is objectively crappy… and some vehicles where I find them subjectively crappy… and I hope folks don’t assume I’m doing that because of my political leanings.

      • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 hour ago

        The story of the disney thing as a reason for why to make a Lidar video, is a great “cover your ass” move.

        No one will accuse him of doing it to hit Elmo’s self driving taxi ambitions. but the timing is telling.
        he could have made the video at any time, he chose to do it now.