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Did a Russian Robotics Company Fake This Tesla-Robot Crash? (wired.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the bad-robots dept.

Last Saturday a firm which rents promotional robots claimed that one of their robots broke free from a line of robots, only to be hit by a self-driving Tesla.

Though video of the incident has now been viewed over 1.2 million times, Wired followed up on the company's claim that "Nevada police" were investigating the incident. Or weren't. Aden Ocampo Gomez, a public information officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said he couldn't find any record of such an incident. And anyway, he says, "We don't report to that kind of incident on private property."
Wired also challenged Promobot's claim that their robot was hit by "a self-driving Tesla car": Teslas don't have a "full self-driving" mode. Autopilot, the automaker's semiautonomous system, is made for highways, not the sort of private road shown in a video of the alleged crash published by the robotics company. Promobot seems to start falling over just a moment before the car gets to it. And that video appears to show a rope snaking away from the incident -- the sort that could be used, say, to pull down a robot that hadn't been hit by a car at all.
When Wired contacted the company for a comment, they didn't respond.

The company's press release also claims that after the collision "most likely there is no way to restore" their robot -- and yet the Daily Dot reports Promobot "does not intend to pursue reparations".

43 comments

  1. So you're saying... by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An implausible clip of a so-called "Promobot"...built by a promotions firm...may, in fact, be a promotional video?

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re:So you're saying... by dryriver · · Score: 1

      Dumb AI Robot gets (slightly) hit by Dumb AI Car. News at 11.

      --
      Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
    2. Re:So you're saying... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's taking "puppy play" a little too far, Beau.

    3. Re:So you're saying... by Rei · · Score: 1

      This is the same Russian company that's been plugging its "Our robot keeps trying to escape its lab!"

      If the very obviously fake "accident" isn't enough, just listen to how they described Autopilot:

      “After the clash the robot was pushed aside and fell. The car continued to move and stopped fifty meters away from the accident. The passenger who was in the car while driving explains that he decided to try a self-driving mode (Full Self-Driving Capability) and chose an idle area for this test.”

      “There was nobody there, no men, no cars. I switched this Tesla into a self-driving mode and it started to move. And wow! A robot on the track! I thought the flivver would come round, but it bumped straightly into the it! I am so sorry, the robot looks cute. And my sincere apologies to the engineers”, said George Caldera, a Tesla passenger.

      Does it need to be mentioned that Autopilot doesn't even remotely work this way? You can't "activate it as a passenger", it's not activated from the screen, the first time it's activated you have to go through confirmation steps, you can't activate it without being in the drivers' seat with your hands on the wheel, you can't activate it from a stop, and it has to be in an area where there's clear road markings.

      --
      Hey, guys, I'm just pleased as punch to report that it's a fleet of a hundred Vogon Battle Destroyers!
    4. Re:So you're saying... by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      well, you have to admit; this is one way to sell a robot.

    5. Re:So you're saying... by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

      "Does it need to be mentioned that Autopilot doesn't even remotely work this way? You can't "activate it as a passenger..."

      I wouldn't waste much time arguing or questioning word choice with what's probably a machine translation from a company sensationalizing the event.

    6. Re:So you're saying... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to agree that this is likely bunk. I am an engineer by training and I own a Tesla and have used the autopilot feature for several months, and I can tell you that given the width of the road and the lack of lane markings, there is a zero percent chance that the Tesla would even allow you to engage the autopilot as it would not be able to ascertain the lane markings. I see this every day when I take off from a stop light and cross the intersection, the cameras lose the lane markers and little steering wheel icon that denotes the option to engage autopilot goes away.

      The other question is why you would engage autopilot at the entry way to a building. That in itself shows poor judgement on the driver, you see that they have to brake in 20 m anyways.

  2. The trouble with AI by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    The trouble with putting AI in robots is how do you get them to stop wanting to commit suicide?

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:The trouble with AI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Give them Victory Gin and tell them we've always been at war with Eastasia.

    2. Re:The trouble with AI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's why the third law of robotics is important.

    3. Re:The trouble with AI by Kokuyo · · Score: 1

      You give them responsibility. It works for me ;).

    4. Re:The trouble with AI by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      "The trouble with putting AI in robots is how do you get them to stop wanting to commit suicide?"

      Give them genitals

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Yes - It was a PR Stunt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Next Question Please?

  4. A Youtube Music Video That Explains What Occurred by dryriver · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
  5. Fake bullshit by Known+Nutter · · Score: 2

    That is not an LVMPD vehicle and that is not an LVMPD officer.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    Beware of the Leopard.
  6. Insurance fraud? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did they fake this to get insurance money because they knew their robot was garbage?

  7. They Did "Escaped Robot And Cars" Before In 2016 by dryriver · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... So they did the same PR stunt 3 years ago in Russia, and now blame a Tesla for "Killing A Robot" in Nevada. LMAO. What a crappy company this must be...

    --
    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
  8. Nothings forgotten. by wolfheart111 · · Score: 0

    JUst wait... Robot Wars... naaa AI aint out for us... their out for each other... earthlings BEHOLD.

    --
    [($)]
  9. Re:Ya... We are... by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    Fucked... :(

    --
    [($)]
  10. Re:Either WAY by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    we are FUCKED

    --
    [($)]
  11. Bullshitters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did Robert X. Cringely fake his Mineserver project on Kickstarter? Did he fake his home fire to scam insurance? What happened to the insurance money? Why have constant promises to deliver failed to materialise? Why did hiis gaurantees of backers receiving their Mineserver by the end of 2018 meet with a wall of silence in the new year? Robert X. Cringely could have scammed $60,000 off victims and an insurance company. Lock him up!

  12. So by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares if they don't have a full autonamaus mode? And who cars if driving assist is only meant for hiways? Their owners think otherwise. Sure it's a PR stunt. But trying to discredit it based on the terms the driver used is silly.

    1. Re:So by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's not a terminology problem. It's a complete lack of understanding of what a Tesla can and can't do.

      Yes, Tesla Autopilot can be used on city streets. But what you see here is not a street. It is a parking lot driveway. It is absolutely impossible to engage Autopilot on a road that looks like this. Autopilot requires a road to have lines (solid or dotted) on both sides of the lane, though occasionally you can get away with a sufficiently high-contrast curb.

      On a road with no lines, you cannot engage any autonomy other than basic traffic-aware cruise control (with no automatic steering whatsoever). If somehow you managed to trick Autopilot into driving on this road anyway, it would have treated the driveway as a single (unusually wide) lane, so the car would have gone right down the middle of the driveway, not down one side.

      So basically, unless they're claiming that Tesla brought a car with alpha firmware and ran it on a public street as a publicity stunt (which would probably be illegal unless they somehow received special approval to beta test their tech somewhere other than California), you can safely assume that a human was driving.

      Also, from some angles, you can clearly see the rope.

      The question is not whether this is fake; it clearly is. The question is why the heck the press were so gullible that they believed something that literally ANY Tesla driver could have told them was fake within the first three seconds without even having to slow down playback.

      This is fake news.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:So by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not a "car with alpha firmware" either, look at how old that car is. It might not even have autopilot hardware in it, it's hard to say for sure if it has AP1's additional ultrasonic sensors in the rear bumper at that resolution, but it definitely doesn't have the side cameras those are clear enough and the black bottom and rear bumper are 100% not facelift refresh parts that preceded the AP2 hardware updates..

  13. Looks more like Promobot took a dive to me! by Dr_Marvin_Monroe · · Score: 2

    Pretty entertaining and feels like the physics is wrong for a 'collision' with a moving vehicle. The Promobot doesn't even start to fall until the car is almost past it. Seems like both Tesla and Promobot would exhibit some synchronized impulse, with the bot violently being pushed away instead of gently tipping over after the Tesla is half way past. My verdict: 100% fake.

  14. Re:Either WAY by sabt-pestnu · · Score: 1

    > we are FUCKED

    Not yet. Those models are the 2.1 revision. ... and you say that like that's a bad thing!

  15. Dashcams by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 1

    Russians faking a car accident? That's why there are so many dash-cams over there. Maybe Tesla needed one here?

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
  16. Prompted me to re-read an Asimov story by Babel-17 · · Score: 1

    https://genius.com/Isaac-asimo... An example of why you shouldn't skimp on thinking out your programming.

  17. They never touch. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    Had the two collided, there surely would have been plastic bits broken and strewn about. Instead it just kinda falls over with no indication that it received a damaging blow.

    Have you seen Battle Bots? When a robot gets hit with great force they go flying and so do their parts. Now consider what happens when a bigger and more fragile version goes up against a car. It would be pieces everywhere and the car would register the impact and stop.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  18. Didn't look fake to me by clovis · · Score: 4, Funny

    What I saw was an Autobot taking out a Decepticon.

  19. Open it in Youtube by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can very clearly see (1) that it starts "falling" just before the car reaches it, (2) an attached rope caused it to fall, and (3) the physics of the momentum transfer is all wrong.

  20. Finally! Peak Tesla. Expecting welcome respite. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    Tesla topic posted at some six hours ago. Hardly 20 comments and not even on above my visibility threshold.

    So we seem to have hit and gone past peak Tesla clickbait potential. Good, I hope soon media will stop needlessly sneaking in Tesla into the headline of every story.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  21. They did a similar thing before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Their "runaway" robot held up traffic in Perm:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Good marketing :)

  22. why is there a question mark in this headline? by pezpunk · · Score: 1

    there is zero question whether it is fake or not. it is known to be fake. no need to equivocate or pretend there's any mystery.

    --
    i could live a little longer in this prison
  23. No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Russians good people. No Russians make video to fool people.

  24. So Russian companies are crap at faking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And if you want to fake something first get rid of the internet!

  25. No coincidence I hope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope this isn't the same advanced Russian "robot" which had a human being inside it.

  26. Looks fake even without the rope by geantvert · · Score: 1

    I did not notice the rope when I first saw the video but the event looked fake to me. The problem is that the trajectory of the robot does not make a lot of sense. It is falling on the side but without any rotation or lateral movement. This is inconsistent with the robot being hit by the moving car.
     

  27. Owners of RVs don't think cruise control is speed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They think that it is automatic driving so they can pop in the back and brew up a cuppa. So therefore we should ban RVs, yes?

    And morons trying to tank Tesla think it's full autonomous, so they should not be allowed Teslas. Tesla owners don't think that. Not any more than a car driver thinks cruise control is full auto.

    Moron.

  28. Fake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The robot doesn't suddenly move and fall. I just evenly falls over. The suspect rope doesn't show up until the next car passes. It is at a 45Â angle to the left of the far left tree. Possibly an insurance scam.

  29. Maybe it had a short circuit by mcswell · · Score: 1

    Where have I seen this before? Robot escapes, hits car... ah, yes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...