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Researchers Discover How To Fool Tesla's Autopilot System (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via CNET: Researchers from the University of South Carolina, Zhejiang University and Qihoo 360 have discovered how to fool Tesla's Autopilot sensors, according to a report from Wired. The researchers were able to trick the system into thinking an object didn't exist when it did, and that an object existed when in fact it did not. Therefore, possible security concerns arise as Autopilot could drive incorrectly, potentially putting passengers and others in danger. CNET reports: "Two pieces of radio equipment were used to convince Tesla's radar sensor that a cart was not placed directly in front of it. One of those pieces, a signal generator from Keysight Technologies, costs about $90,000. The group also tricked the car's short-range parking sensors into malfunctioning using about $40 worth of equipment. Wired points out that this was, thankfully, a rather difficult feat. Most of the technological tomfoolery was done on a stationary car. Some of the required equipment was expensive, and it didn't always work. But it brings up an important point -- even though Autopilot is quite capable, there's still no substitute for an attentive human driver, ready to take control at a moment's notice."
Because it's so hard to make humans see or not see things.
Researchers discover that for $100 they can dig a hole, cover it with a thin layer of asphault and potentially kill a driver.
In other news, researchers also discover that $3 hedge clippers can cut a brake line endangering drivers.
Researchers discover that $10 high powered flash light carefully timed at a blind corner can confuse a human driver's imaging sensors.
Basically.
I was thinking more of painting the road lines into a rock wall, then painting a picture of a tunnel on said wall.
(Then waiting for a roadrunner to come by)
After all, Coyote v. Acme was this country's longest running product liability suit. Though the plaintiff, a partially disabled male Canis latrans, meticulously documented his problems with Acme's mail order line of bird-trapping hardware in a long series of filmstrips and videos, his evidence was leaked to the public, exposing Coyote to generations of ridicule. Most recently the Ninth Circuit sent the case back to lower courts, ruling that Coyote had no standing to invoke the Americans With Disabilities Act, since the ADA applies only to humans.