Tesla’s Autopilot Tricked to Operate Without Driver, Here’s All you Need to Know

The Autopilot feature in Tesla’s vehicles can be tricked into operating without a driver, an influential consumer magazine in the US has found the following scenario. Consumer Reports engineers looked into the hype around Tesla’s Autopilot and claimed that it can be operated without the presence of the Driver.

They tested the Model Y on a closed track and concluded the system could be easily tricked. The news came days after a fatal Tesla crash in Texas. Police authorities believe that there was no one present at the driver’s seat at the time of the accident. The Consumer Reports teams said they successfully and repeatedly tricked the car into driving their test track unmanned and automatically without the driver.

“In our evaluation, the system not only failed to make sure that the driver was paying attention, but it also couldn’t tell if there was a driver there at all,” said Consumer Reports auto testing director Jake Fisher. It was a bit frightening when the officials realized how easy it was to beat the bush and enter through the Barriers of the safeguards. The safeguard proved to be quite inefficient and below the standards expected by the consumer reports director.

Tesla’s website says the system requires a fully attentive driver and using the system does not make the car autonomous. Some of the safety requirements for Tesla’s Autopilot mode include keeping the driver’s hands on the steering wheel, buckling a seatbelt, and not opening any doors. It raised a lot of questions among the community that if it is in mode it should be able to effectively train itself in a way to run without interference from the driver. Tesla’s officials said that they are making more updates to provide a better and a virtual sound experience for the drivers.