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Fooling a Mercedes Into Autonomous Driving With a Soda Can
New submitter Petrut Malaescu writes: Last year Mercedes introduced an intelligent Lane Assist system to its S-class, which is cataloged as a Level 1 "Function-specific Automation" system. In other words, hands and feet must always be on the controls. But a clever driver discovered that all it takes to keep the car in Lane Assist mode is a soda can taped to the steering wheel. It's enough to trigger the steering wheel sensor that's supposed to detect the driver's hands. Obviously, it's not a good idea to try this on a busy highway.
This must have been discovered by a Benz mechanic. Soda cans are far too proletariat for S-class owners.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Ferris Bueller tricked a car into "autonomous" mode by putting a cement block on the accelerator--a sensor that is used to detect the pressure from a foot.
Sensors can be deliberately fooled with inanimate objects. News at 11.
They've had adaptive cruise control for a long time now that will slow you down so that you don't rear-end anyone in front of you. In theory, you can set it at your favorite speed, and then ignore the foot pedals until you reach your exit. I haven't used it, so I don't know if it handles stop-and-go traffic jams or things like that.
Now they have automatic lane centering. The car uses cameras to read the paint stripes and keep it centered in the lane. Because it's not a general system for autonomous driving (and the obvious liability if it crashes), it shuts off if you let go of the steering wheel.
Combine the two, and you have fully autonomous highway driving under regular conditions. You just have to fool the sensor, and sensors are easy to fool.
What's interesting is to learn what conditions it won't handle.
Presenting this as some sort of coup fosters the notion that he system ought to be idiot-proof. No sudo rm -fR / for you! We'll put a thousand annoying and ultimately useless obstacles in the way to doing any little thing!
Don't blame the car for not protecting itself from you.
My older brother used to drive around with an opened beer can between his legs in the 1970's. I wonder why he never thought to duct tape the beer can to the steering wheel and drink from a straw.
"This is, without a doubt, a really stupid thing to actually try. So don't."
Hmm, wow. Nope the really stupid idea is posting a story on the InterWeb about a really stupid idea and warning us that it's "a really stupid idea". Road & Track should be ashamed that many Slashdoters are now searching E-Bay, CarMax and the trades for an S-Class to try this out in or texting their friends (hopefully not while driving to see them) with S-Class' to try this out. Responsible media, right! Telling geeks about a hack, is like giving crack to a junkie. Tomorrow's lead, dozens die recreating S-Class hack.
Oh, yeah, please PM me your findings.
This actually isn't that big of a leap from a technical difficulty level. A pair of Carnegie Mellon researchers drove across the country in 1995 using a forward camera based system. 98.2% of the trip was autonomous. The non-autonomous parts of the NHAA drive are the same which would be needed under this approach.
Poster above is absolutely correct, I have my butler tape monocles and glasses of chardonnay to my S-class steering wheel.
"Pseudo-autonomy" is where the driver is expected to be alert and ready to take over. Therefore,
Autonomous car is to Chauffeur
as
Pseudo-autonomous car is to Student Driver
Ever chaperoned a student driver? Nerve-wracking, and harder than just driving the car yourself. Forget it.
Where I drive, you simply can't leave any more distance when traffic is heavy: if you leave reasonable space between you and the car in front of you, someone will pull in. It's a bit nuts.
But the great thing about this tech is that, unlike me, it has the reflexes to always react safely and the ability to maintain that focus indefinitely. I rely on "looking upstream" to predict changes in traffic flow, and that works well enough, but it doesn't help with drivers who are just crazy, lose a tire, or other such unpredictable events. Now, I'm not sure what scope of events the car can react to, as it's early days yet for self-driving, but in principle it's great.
How close you drive to the car in front of you is a matter of reaction time. I expect we'll no longer be bound by the limits of the human nervous system, soon enough.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Ah, you don't get it - I'm guessing you drive someplace more sane. You cannot leave a safe following distance ahead under some traffic conditions. You could try, but there will be a continuous stream of cars pulling into the space you're trying to leave in front of you, and if you slow by too much to try to maintain that space, now you've become a hazard to navigation, endangering everyone else.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Where I drive, you simply can't leave any more distance when traffic is heavy: if you leave reasonable space between you and the car in front of you, someone will pull in. It's a bit nuts.
I've heard this before, but in my experience there's actually very little to it. The people inclined to pull in front of you just because your lane is slightly faster than the other are also those who are inclined to pull out again the first chance they get. Or people who actually want to be in your lane frequently do so because they need to turn off anyway. In either case you're exactly where you were to being with.
Now if they don't do that, how worse off are you? Say 20 cars pull in front of you in your short trip, you're now 20 car lengths back from where you would have been. At 60km/h it means it'll take you an additional whopping 10 additional seconds to get to your destination.
People are a horrendous judge of risk vs reward, especially on the road.
What it means is you will be constantly cut off by other drivers, at least on every single multilane highway in the US that I have been on.
Even if you are in the slow lane you can expect to continually be cut off. They even do it to trucks in heavy traffic which is just freaking suicidal.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Particularly since tailgating laws are STRICTLY enforced on the autobaun. Nothing like a year end collision at 150 mph to ruin your day.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Yes, a soda can can; that's why it a soda can and not a soda can't!
Try keeping that distance without driving significantly slower than the flow of traffic - unless people pulling in front of you is rare, you can't. Driving at the wrong speed, especially in "bumper to bumper at 70 MPH" traffic creates a significant traffic hazard.
To maintain the same distance in front of you, you are driving the same speed as the car in front of you. How is that the wrong speed?
If there is a constant stream of people merging into your lane - your lane must be faster, or it's their exit. If it's not their exit, there is no reason for them to merge into your lane when you're slower.
The only way your lane is faster while you are going slower is if there is a giant gap in front of you - in which case they should be merging into your lane to distribute the traffic load.
The primary reason for traffic slowdowns on these highways was rear-end collisions blocking traffic.
You've apparently never driven on U.S. 101 in the SF Bay Area; the primary reasons for traffic slowdowns are:
(1) Auuuuuuuugh! There's a huge ball of light up in the sky! We fears it, my precious!
(2) Look! An accident! Is there blood? Hey, Bill, can you see any blood?!?!
(3) I must get in the fast lane because it is the "fast" lane, even though I'm coming up on my exit!
(4) I must get from the fast lane all the way over to the exit lane, but it's OK if this takes forever, I was in the fast lane for 50 feet, dammit!
(5) Yes, I know it's after 3 PM and before 7PM! What do you mean, the lane to the left of mine is "The Car Pool Lane"? I'm driving slow in the middle lane; if you want to pass, you should get into the car pool lane and pass, then get back into this lane; you probably won't get a ticket anyway...
(6) Let me race up in this lane that I need to be out of before too long, rather than getting over now, even though I see barricades ahead, because I know some dumbass will let me in, right? Right? Hey, dumbass, I'm talking to you!
(7) I want to get on one of the bridges, but I don't want to wait behind all the people who also want to get on one of these bridges, so I'm going to block the next lane over until someone lets me in just to punish everyone else... if I have to wait, then everybody else damn well has to wait, too.
That probably should have been a countdown; fast lane discipline while car pool hours are in effect is probably the number one cause of traffic slowdowns, followed by "I'm too stupid to get over ahead of time", with "Auuuugh! Ball of fire!" in third place...
Fun fact about Bay Area freeways: the right lane is reliably faster in heavy traffic. Everyone crams the "fast" lane, and everyone is oblivious to the reality that it's not faster. Moving as far to the left as possible despite objective evidence that it's harmful - bet you never saw that coming in California.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.