Consumer Reports says it was “easily” able to trick Tesla's Autopilot system to operate without anyone in the driver's seat
Consumer Reports says, ‘Under no circumstance should anyone try this’ — Consumer Reports said Thursday it was “easily” able to trick Tesla's Autopilot system …
The new finding adds a different failure mode: the system’s requirement for an attentive person can itself be defeated. That makes safeguards against misuse as material to Autopilot’s safety case as the vehicle’s response to the road.
First-order effects
Tesla faces a fresh, independently documented challenge to Autopilot’s driver-presence safeguards, while Consumer Reports’ warning gives owners a clear basis not to treat the feature as unattended driving.
Autopilot users are directly affected because the test indicates that an occupied driver’s seat is not, by itself, a reliable guarantee that a human is supervising the system.
Second-order effects
Tesla’s safety claims will be judged against not only vehicle-control tests but also the effectiveness of measures intended to keep drivers engaged, raising the bar for any feature positioned as reducing driver workload.
The finding reinforces the value of independent testing by Consumer Reports and researchers, whose earlier work exposed both lane-change safety weaknesses and attacks on Autopilot’s perception inputs.
Third-order effects
If recurring testing continues to uncover distinct ways around driver-assistance safeguards, the competitive distinction in assisted driving will shift toward systems that can verify and enforce human supervision rather than simply add automated maneuvers.
The pattern points to a durable constraint on delegated driving: capabilities that depend on a human fallback need protections designed for predictable misuse as well as ordinary operation.
The trend: Driver-assistance systems are being evaluated increasingly as supervised automation, where reliable human oversight is inseparable from the product’s safety performance.
We make it almost trivial to have semi automatic weapons designed to kill & maim in mass and then get all worked up about idiots who trick their Autopilot into doing something stupid? Where is the context of this outrage? @ConsumerReports - your drunk, sleep on it. https://twitte…
You can't idiot-proof the world, but hands-on-the-wheel is not a good way to check for driver attention. GM, Ford, and others use cameras to see if the driver is looking at the road. That addition would make Tesla drivers safer and help prevent abuse. https://www.consumerreports.…
This is very backwards logic. Any safety system on any application can be worked around if desired. Tesla has taken reasonably steps to prevent carelessness. I try to give everyone and their arguments/opinions a chance, but oftentimes weak arguments like this reveal an inner bias…
I don't know how many Tesla fans I encountered during the past few days claiming a Tesla would stop without a driver. Also, this allows drivers to fall asleep. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
“Tesla is falling behind other automakers like GM and Ford that, on models with advanced driver assist systems, use technology to make sure the driver is looking at the road.” - @ConsumerReports https://www.consumerreports.org/ ...
Watch the huge effort it takes to rig a tesla. Then watch how it drives perfectly without the driver in the seat. Watch the driver look 100% confident that the car won't crash. This again proves how safe teslas are! $tsla https://twitter.com/...
How long can Tesla continue to play by their own rulebook? We have had #dieselgate #suddenunitendedaccelerationgate now it's surely about time we had #autopilotgate. If latest DEATHS are attributed to this nonsense some accountability at the hands of Musk surely needs to occur ht…
So moral of the story: if you go through extensive lengths to trick the vehicle, you too can be an idiot. 🤦♀️ 🙄 #Tesla https://www.consumerreports.org/ ...
Following the Texas crash, @ConsumerReports tested how easy it was to get a Tesla to drive even with no one in the driver's seat. (Spoiler alert: real easy.) Other manufacturers monitor for driver attention - Tesla doesn't even monitor for presence. https://www.consumerreports.or…
CR engineers easily tricked our @Tesla Model Y this week so that it could drive on Autopilot, the automaker's driver assistance feature, without anyone in the driver's seat—a scenario that would present extreme danger if it was repeated on public roads. https://www.consumerreport…
After #Texas crash, @ConsumerReports took a @tesla on a closed 327-acre test track to evaluate Autopilot. CR could easily get the car to drive even with no one in the driver's seat. https://www.consumerreports.org/ ... via @freep @freepautos @LyftGyft @NHTSAgov @cgautomotive @Mor…