this post was submitted on 16 Mar 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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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 95 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (12 children)

This is a very good test, and the car should have past. That said though, I hate the click bait format where they show a stupidly obvious cartoonish wall, when the real wall is way more convincing.

The Video:

collapsed inline media

That sort of clickbait is 100% sure to get a "do not recommend channel" from me, I'm so sick of it. And it's sad when the video has such a good point.

The Clickbait

collapsed inline media

I can see it's kind of funny, but it's misleading.

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 92 points 1 day ago (2 children)

YouTubers - especially large channels like this - constantly A/B test with different thumbnails and stick with whatever one drives the most traffic (no pun intended) to the video.

You might not like it, but it’s unfortunately the reality of operating a content creation business on an algorithm-driven platform.

There are plenty of channels I follow that make fantastic videos, but sometimes you have to tolerate the shitty thumbnails because that’s just the reality of the system they’re operating within.

[–] Tanoh@lemmy.world 15 points 21 hours ago

Yeah, that is just how youtube works. You as an individual can say you don't like annoying thumbnails and titles, but they 100% work. And channels that don't use them are just not getting as many viewers.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

algorithm-driven platform

And what is this "algorithm" based on? Actual user behavior. So the way to correct an algorithm is to change actual user behavior, no?

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Lemme know when they release an OTA for our parietal lobes.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 3 points 20 hours ago

Just don’t fall asleep during the update.

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[–] Maestro@fedia.io 48 points 23 hours ago (18 children)

Have you heard of DeArrow? https://dearrow.ajay.app/

It's a browser extension that replaces clickbait thumbnails with good community sourced ones

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Still supports a creator pulling clickbait.
The only way is to vote with views/retention.

[–] Chip_Rat@lemmy.world 13 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

But it only supports them if their video is then also good. I don't like clickbait, because I don't want to be tricked into my monkey brain looking at something. I do want to see good videos.

Just yesterday the algorithm found some guy doing tech videos. I watched a few of them and then sent a text to a friend who I thought would like it. He asked for a link so I pulled the guys channel up on my phone, and holy smokes, clickbait. If I hadn't seen the videos already I wouldn't have given that guy the time of day. But they are well thought out, interesting videos.

I'm not here to correct the world's poor behaviour. I'm here to watch good videos. De-arrow does a good job of that, it's quite interesting to see YouTube on a computer without it vs what I'm used to now.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 11 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Blame the youtube algorithm and Mr Beast, not all the other youtubers caught up in the tidal wave.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 9 points 21 hours ago

Yeah they do it because it works. I've seen several who make otherwise good content talk about it in their videos and make comments about how stupid it is bit they basically have to to be competitive.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 6 points 19 hours ago

The only way is to vote with views/retention.

Want to guess why they are there in the first place?

I hate it too, but it’s mostly one of those “we can’t have nice things because of other people around us” situations.

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[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 32 points 21 hours ago (23 children)

You realize Mark Robers target audience is like 8 years old, right? He also references looney tunes and wile e coyote a couple dozen times, including in this thumbnail you're losing your mind over. The thumbnail fits the theme very well if you ask me.

This video isn't a rigorous scientific test. This is a children's video designed to get them interested in the scientific method. Get over yourself.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 8 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

IMO it doesn't need to be a rigorous scientific test, it's not trying to prove something works as it should under all conditions. It's showing the exact opposite, it does not work under this one condition, which is more than enough to disprove the safety of the car.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago

More than one test failed.

The Tesla failed the heavy rain and the heavy fog tests.

There's zero excuse to fail either of those tests. But the Tesla killed the kid both times.

The wall test was just to show that the Tesla cannot put together optical clues.

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[–] amorpheus@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

At this point everyone should know that YouTube thumbnails have no requirement for accuracy. It's more like an album cover.

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[–] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 15 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

Still astounded people use anything other than the subscription section on YouTube.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago

History turned off, subscriptions only for me.

We are in a tiny, tiny minority.

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[–] justsomeguy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I disagree with this being a good test. Where on earth would you find a wall on a road with a fotorealistic continuation of the road printed on it? This would trick many human drivers. Self driving cars fail in many realistic situations that are a lot more concerning. This is just clickbait.

[–] Tope@sopuli.xyz 34 points 23 hours ago

True, but Mark's video basically about comparing Tesla's Camera Sensors Vs Self Driving car with a Lidar Sensor.

They also simulated some real life scenarios which the car with Lidar sensors passed easily, while Tesla failed some of them.

So I guess Lidar sensors are superior compared to Teslas cameras.

[–] goldteeth@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 1 day ago

Where on earth would you find a wall on a road with a fotorealistic continuation of the road printed on it?

Spoken like a man who has never relentlessly pursued a roadrunner, nor taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 7 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (3 children)

You haven't seen what Teslas are in the news for lately?

It's not that crazy someone would put up a fake wall on some backroad to catch out inattentive Tesla drivers. Doesn't even need to be nearly as big and elaborate as this one. Any painted object would accomplish the same.

But the point of the video is that optical cameras are easily deceived, and Elon is lying to his customers that LiDAR is overrated and not necessary.

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[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 6 points 22 hours ago

This YT channel definitely went all out on the cartoonish nature of this particular test, but the article describes other tests as well including running over mannequins representing children that other cars (Lexus) avoided.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 4 points 20 hours ago

While I agree that this would trick many human drivers, I think the goal of a self-driving car is that it be better than human drivers. And there is existing tech that could help achieve that.

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[–] SloppyPuppy@lemmy.world 8 points 18 hours ago

Well if your thumbnail is not good enough and catchy people will not watch it. Which wont make the channel profitable. Which will cause it to not exist.

I hope you know that usually youtubers will not even start making the video if they don’t have a killer thumbnail to it. Thats the platform.

[–] Xbeam@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

You shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

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[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

That's more a product if the yt algorithm. For every one like you that is annoyed by the clickbait, there are a million others instantly clicking with no further thought. So if you don't do that, you're losing money.

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[–] GladiusB@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

passed

I agree with everything you said.

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