A man has tricked the driving monitor in the Tesla with a teddy bear.
Tesla’s autopilots are Level 2, which means you can’t take your hands off the wheel while driving and you have to keep your eyes on the road. Cameras monitor the interior of the vehicle for this purpose.
There have been methods before Tesla to convince that the person has their hands on the steering wheel. The Autopilot Buddy was purchasable for a while and in the past one was enough for the S-Class Can of soda on the steering wheel. Now a former Tesla test pilot, John Bernal, has presented a new method.
He also uses a weight on the steering wheel to simulate a hand. Bernal has placed a teddy bear on the seat to show that the person in the driver’s seat is actually dedicated to traffic. The vehicle, a Tesla Model 3, was driving on a non-public road in automated mode. The teddy bear reached human height. The system recognizes in it a person who is dedicated to traffic.
Bernal’s conclusion was that Tesla’s surveillance is not secure. The video was made in collaboration with one of the company’s critics, Dan O’Dowd. This wants to prove with dummies that Teslas run over these child imitations.