Over the weekend, former NASA engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober revealed a video that sought to reveal the distinction between Tesla’s camera-only Autopilot system and a car geared up with lidar. He wished to see whether or not the automobiles would cease routinely earlier than hitting a Wile E. Coyote-style wall that was painted to appear to be a street.
Spoiler alert: the lidar-equipped car brakes earlier than crashing into the wall, whereas the Tesla Mannequin Y plows proper by way of it.
The video was an enormous hit, amassing 10 million views in simply two days. Lots of people praised Rober for exposing the hazards posed by Tesla’s driver-assist system. However others accused Rober of faking the video, noting quite a lot of inconsistencies. Some claimed the video was a secret ploy by Tesla’s enemies to undermine Elon Musk’s mission to superior self-driving automobiles, because of the in depth promotion of Luminar all through the video. I reached out to Rober to see if he wished to handle any of those claims however haven’t but heard again.
Personally, I take challenge with the title of Rober’s video, “Are you able to idiot a self-driving automobile.” Neither car within the take a look at was self-driving. Autopilot, which is Tesla’s first-generation driver-assistance characteristic, doesn’t allow a automobile to drive itself. And Tesla really warns drivers to stay engaged and take note of the street whereas utilizing Autopilot. Rober falls sufferer to that basic blunder: conflating superior driver help with self-driving. We’ve all been there.
Let’s see if we will tackle a few of the different points as properly.
Declare No. 1: Autopilot isn’t on through the take a look at
Many of the criticism about Rober’s video falls into the bucket of people that assume he faked the take a look at to make Tesla look unhealthy. They word that Autopilot doesn’t seem like engaged through the second when the car smashes by way of the pretend wall, citing photographs of the car’s central show that lack the telltale graphics — blue indicator traces and a rainbow street — that sign when Autopilot is on.
The noise bought so loud that Rober finally responded by releasing “uncooked footage” of the take a look at that does certainly present that Autopilot was engaged a number of seconds earlier than the crash.
Declare No. 2: Autopilot disengages proper earlier than impression
However wait! Eagle-eyed viewers word that Autopilot seems to disengage a break up second earlier than impression. Tesla defenders declare that Rober’s palms on the steering wheel really disengage the system, whereas extra conspiratorially minded folks marvel if that is really an enormous scandal. Is Autopilot programmed by Tesla to show off moments earlier than a crash to keep away from taking the blame?
Sure and no. This facet of Autopilot has been recognized for a few years. Rober didn’t uncover it, however that doesn’t make it any much less questionable.
In 2022, the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration (NHTSA) launched an investigation into dozens of incidents by which Tesla drivers, whereas utilizing Autopilot, crashed into stationary emergency automobiles that had been parked on the facet of the street. In 16 of these crashes, investigators found that Autopilot “aborted car management lower than one second previous to the primary impression.”
Loads of critics assume that is Tesla’s technique to keep away from getting blamed when its Autopilot system fails to answer an imminent crash. And yeah, I can see the way it actually appears to be like that method. However NHTSA didn’t discover any proof that means Tesla’s intentions had been nefarious. And it’s value noting {that a} crash that takes place inside 5 seconds of Autopilot being deactivated continues to be registered by Tesla as an Autopilot crash.
Declare No. 3: Autopilot is an outdated system
Tesla followers additionally took challenge with Rober’s use of Autopilot for the take a look at, noting that the system hasn’t been up to date in years and that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) characteristic is the extra up-to-date and succesful system.
But when the aim of Rober’s video was to show the distinction between Tesla’s camera-only method to self-driving and people counting on cameras alongside lidar and different sensors, it doesn’t actually make sense to criticize his use of Autopilot. FSD could also be extra technologically mature than Autopilot, nevertheless it nonetheless depends on the identical cameras as its predecessor.
Tesla infamously eliminated the forward-facing radar and ultrasonic sensors from its automobiles in 2021 in favor of the brand new “Tesla Imaginative and prescient” method. A variety of engineers raised objections on the time — solely to be overruled by Musk.
Certain, FSD has a extra refined software program stack, educated on end-to-end neural networks to incorporate metropolis, freeway, and car parking zone driving situations. It’s simple to fireside off a publish on X claiming the system would have braked earlier than working into Rober’s pretend wall. But it surely additionally may have made the identical error. In spite of everything, this is similar firm that knew Autopilot had issue detecting truck trailers crossing the trail of the car and did nothing to repair it.
Declare No. 4: there have been a number of takes
Within the unique video posted on YouTube, Rober engages Autopilot whereas touring at 39mph. However within the “uncooked footage” he posted on X, the system is activated at 42mph — elevating hypothesis that there have been a number of takes and that Rober is heightening the drama for his YouTube viewers.
To which I might say, yeah, no shit. Should you actually assume a YouTuber with 65 million followers isn’t doing a number of takes in each video earlier than publishing, I’ve some pretty seaside property to promote you in Ohio.
Declare No. 5: it was sponcon
The prominence of lidar firm Luminar’s brand all through the video has raised questions on whether or not Rober was paid by the corporate to advertise its know-how. And Luminar has carried out its personal exams in opposition to Tesla’s automobiles previously to indicate some great benefits of the laser sensor over a camera-only system. As famous by Drive Tesla Canada, Luminar even promoted Rober’s video by itself web site earlier than eradicating it.
Within the video’s notes, Rober thanks Luminar for using its lidar-equipped car however notes that “no compensation was given, and this isn’t a paid promotion.”
Declare No. 6: the Pixel cellphone within the video was photoshopped
Rober supposedly makes use of a Pixel cellphone to movie a few of the pictures contained in the automobiles, however some customers on X word that the “G” on the again of the cellphone is vertical even when the cellphone is in panorama, which has led some to speculate that he’s really filming with an iPhone. Rober has used Pixel telephones in previous movies, however there’s no point out of Google as a sponsor of the video.
Yeah, I bought nothing right here. It appears to be like fairly sloppy. And I’ll word that utilizing Photoshop in a video with out disclosing it to your viewers opens you as much as many legitimate questions on what else you could be manipulating.
Declare No. 7: the opening within the wall was pretend
That’s one Looney Tunes-shaped gap, if I ever noticed one. Should you’re pre-scoring the opening, it appears clear you’re planning to drive by way of it. That’s all of us.