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!

  • Jeffool @lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    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?

      • Jeffool @lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I don’t know the value of echolocation in this case, as I’m generally ignorant here, but it’s straight wild to me that they went purely on visuals.

        • dan@upvote.au
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          2 hours ago

          Tesla used to also have radar (and maybe lidar?) but they removed it as a cost cutting measure. If you ever see older videos of a Tesla slowing down or stopping due to a potential collision a few cars ahead, that’s from before they switched to only relying on cameras. The collision avoidance was significantly better back then.

  • RambaZamba@feddit.org
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    7 hours ago

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

  • Yoga@lemmy.ca
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    10 hours 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.

    • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
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      9 hours 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

  • Naevermix@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

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

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    I am very glad that Elon and Trump have overreached and now Tesla is suffering. I hope Starlink is the next domino to fall.

    • bier@feddit.nl
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      10 hours ago

      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
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        10 hours ago

        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?

        • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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          6 hours 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?

  • Grizzlyboy@lemm.ee
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    14 hours ago

    I had a conversation with a friend who claimed the road and sign system we have in our country, has errors in it causing her brand new car to act weird.

    By acting weird she meant, phantom breaking. Breaking when the car thinks the car driving the opposite direction is coming head on. Sudden and small jerks inside the lane. Not following the speed limit.

    She thought and probably still thinks the road system and not the car, is at fault. It’s a Skoda fyi. These assistants ruin driving. I’m hesitant to catch a ride with her again.

  • FauxPseudo @lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    New stuff to add to the car kit bag for the 21st century

    1. poster board to block usonic weapons
    2. black paint, white paint, roller, brush to paint tunnels on walls
    3. orange cones to pen in self driving cars
  • Magnus@lemmy.brandyapple.com
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    14 hours ago

    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
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      7 hours ago

      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.