Fans of the EV allege video’s comparison with rival lidar-equipped vehicle points to bias, say FSD was not engaged
- Popular YouTuber allegedly tricks Tesla Autopilot with picture of a road on a brick wall, Wile E. Coyote-style
- Rober’s test tries the same with a lidar-equipped vehicle, but can’t pull a fast one on that piece of tech
- Reaction was swift and predictable from Tesla defenders, who allege bias, among other criticisms
If you know anything about the limits of the cameras used to power many modern semi-autonomous driving aids, you might even call it predictable.
Back to that original video: Rober set up a series of (admittedly not really scientific) tests to try and trip up a Tesla equipped with Autopilot, a task that’s apparently not all that difficult to accomplish. Ask a driver, any driver, who has had some serious seat time behind the wheel of an Autopilot-equipped Tesla, SuperCruise-equipped GM, or BlueCruise-equipped Ford, and the opinion you’ll find is likely to be similar: Autopilot is not all it’s cracked up to be, and certainly not the Second Coming as foretold by leagues of blind Tesla stans.
But complicating matters in this test is the fact Rober teamed up with Luminar to test one of their LiDAR-equipped vehicles, though the channel does note no compensation was given, and the video was not a paid promotion. But, yeah, again, unsurprisingly, rabid Tesla bros have come out of the woodwork to attack the original test, and the inclusion of the Luminar Lexus prototype as a point of reference is a sore spot for them.
Other, less angsty viewers have also given their take, to the tune of nearly 11 million views and half-a-million likes in the span of roughly 48 hours. Whether Rober’s test is flawed or not, the issues with Tesla Autopilot – besides, of course, its horribly misleading name – have been documented time and time again on these digital pages, as have those of other autonomous driving helpers.
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