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!
Is it that simple? Because in my situation it wasn’t, I wasn’t driving very fast and the situation changed quickly. I was just cruising and following the car in front of me that I could see, but as the fog quickly got thicker, the car in front of me had to emergency brake, and as did I. My car detected that quicker than I did, for which I’m grateful.
Yes it is that simple, however I will admit that sometimes we make mistakes, and in those scenarios, assistant systems are good to have. However, fog doesn’t just “explode out of thin air”, and if the car in front of you had to emergency brake and that meant you had to emergency brake as well, then it means you were not keeping a safe distance.
I used to drive a lot. I see how close people tailgate even when they are not trying to be aggressive - and I am not surprised that this leads to crashes. But almost all of them are ignoring basic safety rules they were taught - at least here in Germany. And since in some countries (like the fascist southern states of northern america, formerly USA) a driver’s license basically involves no education at all in most places, more accidents happen. I have driven on the highways of the pre-fascist southern states of northern america, and the rate of dangerous driving combined with less control over the vehicle is much higher than in the average European country.