YouTuber Crashes Tesla Into Fake Road Wall, Fooling Vehicle Cameras In Misleading Video

Former NASA engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober pitted Tesla Inc‘s TSLA Autopilot system against a lidar system from Luminar Technologies Inc LAZR in his latest video. Although the road conditions were terrible, the results were clear, but there’s a catch.

What To Know: Rober is one of the most successful creators on YouTube with over 65 million subscribers. His latest video “Can You Fool A Self Driving Car?” compares the capabilities of Luminar’s lidar technology with Tesla’s driver-assistance technology.

According to Forbes, Rober is already receiving backlash because the video is misleading. Although the YouTuber claims to be testing self-driving technology, he actually tested Tesla’s driver-assistance technology in the video, which hasn’t been updated in years.

Lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, uses lasers to determine distance. Tesla famously operates its systems with just cameras. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has publicly said that cameras and AI are all that’s needed for safe self-driving technology.

The problem with Rober’s video is that he didn’t test Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving system, or even any self-driving system at all. He tested Tesla’s Autopilot system, which is an older driver-assist tool for highways, similar to some cruise control systems.

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Despite the video being misleading, the results were clear, as to be expected given the difference in capabilities of the two systems. The video was designed to show the difference between what a computer sees and what lidar detects on the road in varying conditions.

Luminar’s lidar technology passed all of the tests, while Tesla’s Autopilot system failed to detect objects in heavy fog and in a simulated downpour. Tesla’s Autopilot also failed the “Wile E Coyote” wall test.

For the final test, Rober constructed a wall out of styrofoam and printed a photograph of the empty road ahead on the front, creating the illusion that the wall wasn’t there.

While the Luminar-equipped vehicle stopped before getting to the wall, the Tesla vehicle blew right through it

“So I can definitely say for the first time in the history of the world, Tesla’s optical camera system would absolutely smash through a fake wall without even a slight tap on the brakes,” Rober said.

The video already has nearly 11 million views and Luminar shares were up more than 24% in Monday’s session at last check, according to Benzinga Pro.

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This illustration was generated using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.