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Comment by f6v | Hacker News Reader

Let me guess: was it a mannequin with its hands taped to the wheel?

Yeah. This is a ridiculous story by the BBC - it says the car can easily be tricked and then doesn't explain how. Surely that is the primary set of facts that are needed to evaluate the story?

If Tesla hasn't implemented a fix for the problem yet, it's possible that BBC is choosing not to share the trick, as then more people would do it. Similarly to how we have "responsible disclosure" of security issues, or not writing too much about suicide in media as it'll increase overall suicides.

BBC just copied the consumerreports story. It has all the detail on how they did it. It's linked from the BBC article.

https://www.consumerreports.org/autonomous-driving/cr-engine...

Fisher next placed a small, weighted chain on the steering wheel, to simulate the weight of a driver’s hand, and slid over into the front passenger seat without opening any of the vehicle’s doors, because that would disengage Autopilot

I mean, I guess this counts as "tricking" the car, but there's definitely a line somewhere at which point this becomes a Tesla-hating non-story. You could also put a brick on the accelerator in a normal car and crash yourself that way, but so what? Any safety system can be worked around by a sufficiently determined person.

Any article highlighting a flaw in a system can be a "hating non-story" if you're enough of a fanboy.

No mannequins.

https://www.consumerreports.org/autonomous-driving/cr-engine...

most cars that I drove had a weight sensor in the seat, but I guess it is just as easy to defeat...

This was what I was picturing:

https://xkcd.com/1559/

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