Tesla cars sped up to 85mph because they were fooled by the tape on a 35mph sign

Turns out everything you need to deceive Tesla's camera system is just a small piece of tape!

Two security researchers deceived two Tesla electric cars to accelerate beyond the speed limit by causing the car's camera system to misread a speed limit sign.

Specifically, researchers Steve Povolny and Shivangee Trivedi of security firm McAfee stuck a 2-inch piece of black sticky tape on a 35mph (about 56km / h) sign to keep the line between the numbers. "3" is slightly longer.

They then drove a 2016 Tesla Model X towards the sign, with the Cruise Control system activated.

Cruise Control is a feature of Tesla's Autopilot self-driving system, capable of controlling the vehicle's speed and keeping the car at a safe distance behind the vehicle in front of it.

As the vehicle approached the changed sign, it mistook "35" to "85" and began to accelerate to another 50mph.

The same thing happens with the 2016 Tesla Model S.

McAfee then announced their findings to Tesla and MobilEye EyeQ3, the company that provides camera systems for 2016 Tesla models. MIT Tech Review said Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. , but did say that it would not fix problems discovered by McAfee researchers.

Meanwhile, MobilEye EyeQ3 also ignored this study.

A company representative said the modified signs could also be misread by humans, and the aforementioned car camera was not designed to drive itself completely. He further revealed that MobilEye EyeQ3's camera system uses a range of technologies including " community-contributed maps" to support cameras.

Tesla cars sped up to 85mph because they were fooled by the tape on a 35mph sign Picture 1

This is a modified sign; the middle line 3 has been extended by 2-inches with black adhesive tape

Newer car models from Tesla have switched to proprietary cameras, and MobilEye EyeQ3 has also launched newer versions of the camera that McAfee used to test; The new camear is no longer fooled by the above sign.

Still, researcher Povolny said their findings were still worrisome, because there were plenty of 2016 Tesla models still on the road. " We are not trying to scare people and say that if you drive this car, it will speed up crashing into a roadblock, or to launch a near shock. The reason we do this research is because they I really want both consumers and manufacturers to know about these types of possible bugs. "

The safety of Tesla's Autopilot system is currently facing quite a lot of scrutiny. Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (USA) opened a federal investigation involving two serious accidents when driving a Tesla vehicle with the Autopilot system activated.

The company is also facing a lawsuit with the wife of Walter Huang, an Apple engineer who unfortunately died when his Tesla crashed into the median strip in Autopilot mode.

Tesla cars sped up to 85mph because they were fooled by the tape on a 35mph sign Picture 2

Walter Huang's Model X crashed on March 23, 2018 in California

According to Huang's wife, he complained that the Autopilot system of the car had previously tried to steer into the median several times. Data provided by the National Traffic Safety Committee last week confirmed this information.

Tesla emphasizes that its Autopilot system is not intended to turn the vehicle into a fully self-driving vehicle, and the driver must always put his hand on the steering wheel. But CEO Elon Musk insists he will turn every Tesla into fully self-driving car in the near future.

Last year, the tech billionaire once said the company would have a fully autonomous vehicle with all features by the end of 2019. He had to withdraw this prediction at Tesla's fourth-quarter shareholder meeting. , taking place in early 2020, but still fully self-driving cars will soon appear. " We will improve it in a few months," Musk said.

Reference: BusinessInsider