Self-Driving Tesla Crashes into Wall Painted to Look Like a Road… Just Months Before Planned Robotaxi Launch
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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!
And that's what you get for cheaping out on tech and going with cameras over lidar. Not only that, but Tesla removed all the radar technology that literally every car uses for collision detection about a year ago.
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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!
I seem to recall that fElon prevented the self driving team from utilizing LIDAR for any part of the system, instead demanding that everything run off of optical input. Does anyone else remember the same?
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I read something a while back from a guy while wearing a T-shirt with a stop sign on it, a couple robotaxies stopped in front of him. It got me thinking you could cause some chaos walking around with a speed limit 65 shirt.
They're not reading speed limit signs; they'll follow the speed limit noted on the reference maps, like what you see in the app on your phone.
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I seem to recall that fElon prevented the self driving team from utilizing LIDAR for any part of the system, instead demanding that everything run off of optical input. Does anyone else remember the same?
Was just thinking this
A single LiDAR sensor prevents this kind of issue
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I seem to recall that fElon prevented the self driving team from utilizing LIDAR for any part of the system, instead demanding that everything run off of optical input. Does anyone else remember the same?
Iirc they were using a combination of lidar and radar, but Elmo wanted to cut costs.
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Teslas did this in the past. There was also the issue of thinking that the moon was a red light or something.
Or when a truck is moving traffic lights
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Iirc they were using a combination of lidar and radar, but Elmo wanted to cut costs.
Ah okay. I was genuinely curious if I was remembering correctly because I definitely know it's been awhile since I'd read anything on the subject.
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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!
Entire video is worth watching. He also snuck a chest mounted lidar into Disney and mapped some rides.
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Was just thinking this
A single LiDAR sensor prevents this kind of issue
I'm trying to find an article that covers what I remember but I know for sure that it's been a good while since I saw the info I recall. Hopefully I can dig something up.
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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!
They obviously pre-cut the wall, probably for safety reasons, and they were like, let's make it a silly cartoon impact hole while we're at it.
Good job.
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I'm so glad I wasn't the only person who immediately thought "This is some Wile E. Coyote shit."
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I seem to recall that fElon prevented the self driving team from utilizing LIDAR for any part of the system, instead demanding that everything run off of optical input. Does anyone else remember the same?
I remember there being claims from him or his team about lidar being a dead end that would not scale as well as computer vision.
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I'm trying to find an article that covers what I remember but I know for sure that it's been a good while since I saw the info I recall. Hopefully I can dig something up.
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They're not reading speed limit signs; they'll follow the speed limit noted on the reference maps, like what you see in the app on your phone.
There's a lot of cars that check via camera too to double check, for missing/outdated information and for temporary speed limit signs.
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I seem to recall that fElon prevented the self driving team from utilizing LIDAR for any part of the system, instead demanding that everything run off of optical input. Does anyone else remember the same?
Came here to actually write this. Everyone remembers that. He made Tesler the hated shit it is today.
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There's a lot of cars that check via camera too to double check, for missing/outdated information and for temporary speed limit signs.
Where I live there are a lot of "temporary" 30km/h speed limits that were never removed by the road workers after the work was completed.
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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!
Show someone footage of 9/11 and they‘ll think of 2001. Show someone footage of a burning or crashing Tesla 20 years from now and they‘ll think of 2025.
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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!
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I'm so glad I wasn't the only person who immediately thought "This is some Wile E. Coyote shit."
I mean, it is also referenced in the article and even in the summary from OP.
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That might actually be the exact article I'm thinking about. Thanks!
