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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[–] Polderviking@feddit.nl 12 points 1 day ago

I remember elon saying something along the lines of his camera system being just as good and they thusly don't need to employ things like LIDAR.

[–] RambaZamba@feddit.org 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Things that happen when you rely exclusively on optical sensors, i.e. cameras. But that's just cheaper, more money for Nazi Elon.

[–] Inkstainthebat@pawb.social 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Are we reeeeally sure optical sensors with fast image recognition software are cheaper than LiDAR?

[–] Tzig@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

The hardware is, which is the important part at scale: even if the code is 10x more expensive when you sell millions of the car it becomes pennies/car

[–] SirFasy@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Turns out having radar is rather important..

[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 33 points 1 day ago

It's dirt cheap, too. If this was a cost-cutting measure, it was a thoroughly idiotic one. Which feels like the mark... of a certain someone I can think of

[–] magnus919@lemmy.brandyapple.com 83 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I remember Elon foolishly saying his cars don’t need radar or lidar. Even software-disabling radar in cars that already had the hardware.

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not even just his cars, he thinks the MILITARY, doesn't need radar and can just use cameras to spot and track stealth fighters.

He's a fucking lunatic.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago

As an augmentation, the ability to spot and track objects visually would be amazing.
But then planes just have to fly above 10k ft, and pretty much guaranteed cloud cover.

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I mean his right, his cars don't need radar or lidar. They just drive into things.

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[–] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 281 points 2 days ago (21 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 176 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Was just thinking this

A single LiDAR sensor prevents this kind of issue

[–] Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

Even RADAR prevents this and the cars had RADAR! They started disabling RADAR for the older cars since the new ones don’t even have the hardware installed.

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[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 60 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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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[–] Arbiter@lemmy.world 63 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Iirc they were using a combination of lidar and radar, but Elmo wanted to cut costs.

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[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 87 points 2 days ago (3 children)

This is why it's fucking stupid Tesla removed Lidar sensors and relies on cameras only.

But also who would want a tesla, fuck em

[–] AreaKode@lemmy.world 38 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I was horrified when I learned that the autopilot relies entirely on cameras. Nope, nope, nope.

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[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago

They never had lidarr. They used to have radar and uss but they decided "vision" was good enough. This conveniently occurred when they had supply chain issues during covid.

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[–] EaterOfLentils@lemmy.world 53 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Apparently they keep getting tickets in China because they didn't bother to adjust the settings to accommodate Chinese roads and traffic laws. Result is Tesla is getting utterly crushed by BYD in their one major market that doesn't care about Elon's antics.

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[–] Jeffool@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

This would be hilarious if it weren't for shitty cars causing deaths.

That said, I always wondered why we don't find a system like RFID that could penetrate concrete and asphalt, and plant passive receivers in roads? We re-pave roads so damn often in this country (the U.S.) it seems like we could've knocked it out in the past couple of decades, minus our most rural areas.

I know RFID itself isn't strong enough, but I imagine that would've been an easier problem than figuring our complete self driving. Not to mention making GPS a secondary system for U.S. road travel in most cases.

Maybe it's just a dumb shower thought?

[–] JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

What you're describing is just a higher level of autonomy. If I remember correctly, you're describing level 3 whereas Tesla's are level 2. I believe VW made a level 3 proof of concept mini bus back around 2020 but the legislation doesn't allow for the sensors in the road yet because... Oh that's right. A level 2 car manufacturer owns like half the world right now which means nobody is allowed to innovate or do better than him. Huh, that sucks.

[–] bufalo1973@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I have another idea: echolocation and laser measurement.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

Echolocation is specifically audio based.
Lidar is a similar technique, but much more accurate and precise.
Project a grid of laser beam, read when the laser bounces back, you know the distance to that part of the grid.

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[–] lunarul@lemmy.world 40 points 2 days ago (2 children)

My vacuum would pass that test... why is a Tesla worse at this?

[–] bier@feddit.nl 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

In short because Elon (wrongly) believes you only need cameras, he made the claim people also drive with just 2 eyes.

The thing is, we recognize a truck with stickers of a stopsign, while AI vision gets confused.

Waymo (Googles self driving side hussle) was build on lidar and other sensors and has been using robot taxis for many years now in geofenced specific areas.

[–] Yoga@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The thing is, we recognize a truck with stickers of a stopsign, while AI vision gets confused.

Lmao would it be illegal to put a stop sign on the back of your car?

[–] kelseybcool@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Some school buses have a sticker / sign on the back that says "I stop for railroad crossings" and can have a stop sign on said sticker.

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago

I was thinking the same thing. What would happen if you popped one out of the back of your car while driving in front of a self driving car on the freeway?

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[–] Yoga@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago

Insurance fraud is going to bankrupt Tesla robotaxis faster than an incompetent CEO ever could.

There will be too many ways to defeat the cameras and not having LiDAR unlike the rest of the industry may prove to be found to be a failure of duty of care.

[–] Viri4thus@feddit.org 98 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Who was the idiot that removed LiDar to cut costs?

/s

[–] bobslaede 47 points 2 days ago (15 children)

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

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[–] RobotZap10000@feddit.nl 150 points 2 days ago (30 children)
[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 95 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 92 points 2 days 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 48 points 2 days 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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[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days 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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[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 60 points 2 days ago (4 children)
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[–] Naevermix@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Make Elon test ride the first Tesla robotaxi and there's a chance the funniest thing of all time will happen.

[–] RabbitInTheWoodPile@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

TaxiGate? I just hope he takes along four or five billionaire friends with him.

[–] jewbacca117@lemmy.world 109 points 2 days 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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[–] faberyayo@lemm.ee 22 points 2 days ago

Some cartoon shit

[–] kamen@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago
[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 77 points 2 days 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.

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[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (4 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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[–] mennorobert@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago

There's a very simple solution to this. BUILD MORE TRAINS!

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