Coming to you today with an episode from Land of The Giants, which this season is all about Tesla. (It’s a very good season, you’re not too far behind, you can catch up wherever you find your fine podcasts!) This one just felt particularly Vergecast-y to us: it’s the story of how Musk took over at Tesla, and reshaped the company in his image. We are the flagship podcast of corporate in-fighting, after all.
This footage (published by the Wall Street Journal) shows one of 16 crashes involving emergency vehicles and Tesla’s Autopilot feature being investigated by the NHTSA.
Is it a litter box? A kitty bed? Who knows, but given cats are infamous for their love of cardboard boxes, the choice of material is highly commendable.
These researchers seem to think so. This wasn’t a remote hack — they needed physical access to the car — but once they got in they were able to activate optional features you would otherwise have to pay extra for. But after parts and labor, I wonder if they ended up paying more $300 for the entire experiment.
To me, this is the key takeaway:
By doing this, the researchers essentially found a way to jailbreak the car. This may also give owners the ability to enable the self-driving and navigation system in regions where it’s normally not available, the researchers told TechCrunch, though they admitted that they haven’t tested these capabilities yet, as that would require more reverse engineering.
Halfway there!
Teslas, like most cars, aren’t supposed to work without someone in the front seat. But as YouTuber AI Addict proves, all you need is a stuffed animal, or even a dang balloon, to trick the Full Self-Driving system into thinking there’s someone behind the wheel. (Full disclosure: these guys did these tests at the behest of Dan O’Dowd, a rich software developer who’s made it his life’s mission to debunk Elon Musk’s automated driving claims.)
Also RIP “Little Timmy,” the child-sized dummy who gets mowed down repeatedly during these disturbing tests.
