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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[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 274 points 22 hours ago (25 children)

I seem to recall that fElon prevented the self driving team from utilizing LIDAR for any part of the system, instead demanding that everything run off of optical input. Does anyone else remember the same?

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 170 points 22 hours ago (4 children)

Was just thinking this

A single LiDAR sensor prevents this kind of issue

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[–] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 23 points 17 hours ago

Yes, I recall at the time experts saying it was a terrible mistake and Elon saying Machine learning will bridge the gap.

The real reason was to increase margins.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 56 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (5 children)

What's cool is that Teslas used to have radar sensors, at least, but Elon removed them from production to save money. Even if you have a car from back then, the software no longer uses them and they'll just physically unplug them the next time you have the car serviced, as it's just a drain on the battery at this point 🙃

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[–] Viri4thus@feddit.org 95 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

Who was the idiot that removed LiDar to cut costs?

/s

[–] bobslaede@feddit.dk 45 points 20 hours ago (6 children)

Elon removed the radar. Tesla cars never had lidar. What an idiot Musk.

[–] nialv7@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Tesla had camera+radar+sonar, and that wasn't their own tech - they used mobileye EyeQ back then. When they switched to in house tech they gradually ditched the radar and sonar which made no sense to me. But at the time I saw their lead say in an interview that this is superior and I believed. not anymore.

they said doing so cut costs but obviously lidar/radar/sonar only gets cheaper over time, let alone the extra r&d costs because a vision only system is much more difficult to develop.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

He did say lidar was "useless" though.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 15 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (4 children)

He's said humans don't use LiDAR so his cars shouldn't have to. Of course humans have a brain, and he's cars don't, but you can't tell him anything.

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[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 13 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

He also said the government doesn't use sql.

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[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

They are so expensive too! /s

Who would have known electronics gets cheaper all the time?? /j

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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 94 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (33 children)

This is a very good test, and the car should have past. That said though, I hate the click bait format where they show a stupidly obvious cartoonish wall, when the real wall is way more convincing.

The Video:

That sort of clickbait is 100% sure to get a "do not recommend channel" from me, I'm so sick of it. And it's sad when the video has such a good point.

The Clickbait

I can see it's kind of funny, but it's misleading.

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 32 points 17 hours ago (24 children)

You realize Mark Robers target audience is like 8 years old, right? He also references looney tunes and wile e coyote a couple dozen times, including in this thumbnail you're losing your mind over. The thumbnail fits the theme very well if you ask me.

This video isn't a rigorous scientific test. This is a children's video designed to get them interested in the scientific method. Get over yourself.

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[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 90 points 20 hours ago (8 children)

YouTubers - especially large channels like this - constantly A/B test with different thumbnails and stick with whatever one drives the most traffic (no pun intended) to the video.

You might not like it, but it’s unfortunately the reality of operating a content creation business on an algorithm-driven platform.

There are plenty of channels I follow that make fantastic videos, but sometimes you have to tolerate the shitty thumbnails because that’s just the reality of the system they’re operating within.

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[–] Maestro@fedia.io 47 points 20 hours ago (22 children)

Have you heard of DeArrow? https://dearrow.ajay.app/

It's a browser extension that replaces clickbait thumbnails with good community sourced ones

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[–] SloppyPuppy@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago

Well if your thumbnail is not good enough and catchy people will not watch it. Which wont make the channel profitable. Which will cause it to not exist.

I hope you know that usually youtubers will not even start making the video if they don’t have a killer thumbnail to it. Thats the platform.

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[–] RobotZap10000@feddit.nl 142 points 23 hours ago (29 children)
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[–] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 26 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Was there a coyote or a roadrunner anywhere nearby?

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[–] jewbacca117@lemmy.world 105 points 23 hours ago (13 children)

I read something a while back from a guy while wearing a T-shirt with a stop sign on it, a couple robotaxies stopped in front of him. It got me thinking you could cause some chaos walking around with a speed limit 65 shirt.

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[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 29 points 19 hours ago
[–] Teal@lemm.ee 11 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

Beep beep! Damn things are using ACME LiDAR!

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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 76 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

And that's what you get for cheaping out on tech and going with cameras over lidar. Not only that, but Tesla removed all the radar technology that literally every car uses for collision detection about a year ago.

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 3 points 11 hours ago

The radar module on my truck costs $70.

The richest man on earth doesn't think the lives of your vehicle's passengers are worth $17.50 a pop.

And that's to a knuckledragger like me, buying a single radar unit online. I'm sure the manufacturer gets insane quantity discounts.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 13 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Mark Rober's video of the six tests (the remaining section is about mapping Space Mountain as Mark wanted to do since he was a kid)

The wall looking like a road test

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