Tesla vehicles may not be as safe as previously advertised, according to Elon Musk. The new Tesla model vehicles can be fooled into speeding at dangerously high speeds by using a piece of tape on a speed limit sign. When someone placed a piece of tape over a 35 mph speed limit sign, the Tesla was tricked into accelerating all the way to 85 miles per hour simply because of the manipulated sign, according to a new video.
Tesla is currently under a lot of pressure as its stock continues to climb at alarming rates. When McAfee researchers covered the “3” on the Tesla sign with a two-inch piece of electrical tape, they were able to fool the Tesla vehicle into believing that the speed limit was 85 miles per hour.
The Tesla Model X, which was built in 2016, was fooled by a phony sign when the car was in cruise control. Before the driver realized that the vehicle was putting her into hazardous situations, it had accelerated the vehicle to 50 mph.
Following the Tesla Model S’s release in 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened 127 investigations into its safety. According to The New York Times, Tesla discovered that there was a problem with the car’s computer system after it found itself under investigation for 127 complaints from the agency claiming that some cars had “sudden unintended acceleration.”
The Tesla flaw caused 110 crashes and 52 injuries, according to the NHTSA. Many customers who spend a lot of money on acquiring a Tesla ended up in risky situations as a result of the automobile manufacturers’ engineers failing to do their homework and ensure that drivers would be safe while utilizing cruise control.
In this case, the evidence demonstrates that if someone uses electrical tape to change the speed limit, which might be harmful for someone behind the wheel of a car even if it is not driven by a computer, they may face significant fines and time in jail.
“By making a tiny sticker-based modification to our speed limit sign, we were able to cause a targeted misclassification of the MobilEye camera on a Tesla and use it to cause the vehicle to autonomously speeds up to 85 miles per hour when reading a 35 miles per hour sign,” McAfee said. “For safety reasons, the video demonstration shows the speed start to spike and TACC accelerate on its way to 85, but given our test conditions, we apply the brakes well before it reaches target speed.”
The company went on, “It is worth noting that this is seemingly only possible on the first implementation of TACC when the driver double taps the lever, engaging TACC. If the misclassification is successful, the autopilot engages 100 percent of the time.”
Tesla does not think that McAfee’s study is genuine since it was a deliberate attempt to deceive the computer camera. Should it be taken into account? Should Tesla vehicles be designed to stop people from cheating them?
“Even to the trained eye, this hardly looks suspicious or malicious, and many who saw it didn’t realize the sign had been altered at all,” McAfee stated.
What’s your take on it?
