In the piece — titled “Can You Fool a Self Driving Car?” — Rober found that a Tesla car on Autopilot was fooled by a Wile E. Coyote-style wall painted to look like the road ahead of it, with the electric vehicle plowing right through it instead of stopping.

The footage was damning enough, with slow-motion clips showing the car not only crashing through the styrofoam wall but also a mannequin of a child. The Tesla was also fooled by simulated rain and fog.

  • @[email protected]
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    425 days ago

    The president can’t drive by law unless on the grounds of the White House and maybe Camp David. At least while in office. They might be allowed to drive after leaving office…

    • @[email protected]
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      125 days ago

      The real question is, in a truly self-driving car, (not a tesla) are you actually driving?

          • @[email protected]
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            124 days ago

            He would be a much funnier person if he weren’t in a position of power (and thus didn’t have the ability to affect people), especially one as terrifying as being the leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world.

          • Echo Dot
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            224 days ago

            I imagine when he’s driving around his golf course he makes voom voom noises

    • FuglyDuck
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      25 days ago

      This isn’t true at all. I can’t tell if you’re being serious or incredibly sarcastic, though.

      The reason presidents (and generally ex presidents, too) don’t drive themselves is because the kind of driving to escape an assassination attempt is a higher level of driving and training than what the vast majority of people ever have. There’s no law saying presidents are forbidden from driving.

      In any case, I would be perfectly happy if they let him drive a CT and it caught fire. I’d do a little jib, and I wouldn’t care who sees that.

        • FuglyDuck
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          525 days ago

          you’re gonna have to drop a source for that.

          because, no, they’re not. the Secret Service provides a driver specially trained for the risks a president might face, and very strongly insists, but they’re not “prohibited” from driving simply because they’re presidents.

          to be clear, the secret service cannot prohibit the president from doing anything they really want to do. Even if it’s totally stupid for them to do that. (This includes, for example, Trump’s routine weekend round of golf at Turd-o-Lardo)

          • @[email protected]
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            124 days ago

            You’re technically correct, there is no law prohibiting a current or former president from driving, but there is a policy preventing it and it is enforced by the secret service (who follow them around for the rest of their life). Many former presidents have gone on the record that the lose of their driving privileges really sucks (Bush 43, Clinton, and Obama have all discussed it on camera during various interviews). It’s been a policy since Kennedy was assassinated, lots of other policy changes too, but one was the no driving bit.

            Random sources: https://www.smh.com.au/world/us-presidents-can-have-everything--except-the-car-keys-20140506-zr5we.html

            https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/28/presidents-arent-allowed-to-drive.html

            And one just about some times they drove anyway:

            https://www.motorbiscuit.com/3-u-s-presidents-got-around-no-driving-rule/

            • FuglyDuck
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              124 days ago

              Policy can be changed. Quite easily.

              Especially by the president, when it’s about the president.

              Obama, Clinton, others, they don’t really lose their driving privileges. Effectively, they do, sure. But that’s because they’re not utter morons.

              Even trump has yet to prove himself that stupid. He probably is that stupid, but he likes the pomp and circumstance, don’t get me wrong.

              Other policies include screening people for firearms at rallies- trump over ruled that one, that day, too.

          • @[email protected]
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            25 days ago

            to be clear, the secret service cannot prohibit the president from doing anything they really want to do

            Was Trump lying when he said the SS wouldn’t take him back to the capital on Jan 6?

            I could definitely see him lying about that so he doesn’t look like he abandoned his supporters during the coup, but I could also see the driver being like “I can’t endanger you, mr president” and ignoring his requests.

            • FuglyDuck
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              325 days ago

              Was Trump lying when he said the SS wouldn’t take him back to the capital on Jan 6?

              Definitely not. There is no way in hell the secret service would have taken the president to that shit show. Doesn’t mean that they would have physically arrested him if he insisted going on his own, however.

      • @[email protected]
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        121 days ago

        Mostly sarcastic, but there is a secret service rule that the president is not allowed to drive on public roads. The rest is all debatable because it hasn’t been litigated. They answer to the president, but a president can not refuse secret service protection.

        The current understanding is that they can strongly suggest things, but ultimately, they have to figure it out if the president doesn’t follow.