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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[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 13 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Suddenly, there are more Yellow Brick Road murals everywhere.

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[–] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 39 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
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[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 19 points 10 hours ago
[–] conicalscientist@lemmy.world 71 points 12 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 14 points 7 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 24 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 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 8 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

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

The first, in fact.

[–] happydoors@lemm.ee 45 points 12 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 28 points 9 hours ago (1 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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[–] rational_lib@lemmy.world 54 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 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 19 points 13 hours ago

Who owns the White House right now?

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[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 12 points 11 hours ago

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

[–] King3d@lemmy.world 41 points 15 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.

[–] fallingcats@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

If only elon hadn't insisted on not using lidar or anything other than just visible light cameras

[–] Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 12 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 4 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

They never had lidar, as far as I know.

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[–] CPMSP@midwest.social 35 points 15 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Delta_V@lemmy.world 11 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

But why was there a road there?

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[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 45 points 16 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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[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 25 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Mark Rober is about to be listed as FBI public enemy #1 :(

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

EPA is going to investigate him for criminal fraud on Monday, I reckon.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 7 hours ago

Didn't they dismantle them on Thursday?

[–] Corno@lemm.ee 16 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)
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[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 36 points 16 hours ago

To be fair, the roadrunner it was following somehow successfully ran into the painting.

[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Taking a guess here, but I think Mark Rober is not a big trump/musk fan? :D

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 11 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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.

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To any artists in Austin,TX: you have your work cut out for you. Godspeed.

[–] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.org 78 points 20 hours ago

TIL Mark Rober is a domestic terrorist

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 261 points 1 day ago (5 children)

OMFG someone test to see if Teslas stop to eat free bird seed.

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