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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[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 1 points 10 minutes ago

Yep, I could see someone placing a billboard like that with a cliff behind it.

[–] blady_blah@lemmy.world 19 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

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 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

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 1 points 2 minutes ago

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

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 7 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Suddenly, there are more Yellow Brick Road murals everywhere.

[–] icecream@lemmy.world 3 points 43 minutes ago* (last edited 38 minutes 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?

[–] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 31 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 1 points 13 minutes ago

+1...a classic!

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 15 points 7 hours ago
[–] conicalscientist@lemmy.world 64 points 9 hours ago (2 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.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 6 points 4 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 22 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 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.

[–] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

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

The first, in fact.

[–] happydoors@lemm.ee 39 points 8 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

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 22 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee 1 points 46 minutes ago

He probably just made Disney admissions and security even more annoying for everyone else.

[–] rational_lib@lemmy.world 46 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 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.

[–] PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 15 points 10 hours ago

Who owns the White House right now?

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[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 10 points 8 hours ago

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

[–] King3d@lemmy.world 34 points 11 hours ago (4 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.

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[–] CPMSP@midwest.social 33 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Delta_V@lemmy.world 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

But why was there a road there?

[–] GoodLuckToFriends@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago

He also painted the line leading up to it, if I remember the gag correctly. The real road is off camera.

[–] Corno@lemm.ee 15 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)
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