In the piece — titled “Can You Fool a Self Driving Car?” — Rober found that a Tesla car on Autopilot was fooled by a Wile E. Coyote-style wall painted to look like the road ahead of it, with the electric vehicle plowing right through it instead of stopping.

The footage was damning enough, with slow-motion clips showing the car not only crashing through the styrofoam wall but also a mannequin of a child. The Tesla was also fooled by simulated rain and fog.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    you’re gonna have to drop a source for that.

    because, no, they’re not. the Secret Service provides a driver specially trained for the risks a president might face, and very strongly insists, but they’re not “prohibited” from driving simply because they’re presidents.

    to be clear, the secret service cannot prohibit the president from doing anything they really want to do. Even if it’s totally stupid for them to do that. (This includes, for example, Trump’s routine weekend round of golf at Turd-o-Lardo)

    • ITGuyLevi@programming.dev
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      3 hours ago

      You’re technically correct, there is no law prohibiting a current or former president from driving, but there is a policy preventing it and it is enforced by the secret service (who follow them around for the rest of their life). Many former presidents have gone on the record that the lose of their driving privileges really sucks (Bush 43, Clinton, and Obama have all discussed it on camera during various interviews). It’s been a policy since Kennedy was assassinated, lots of other policy changes too, but one was the no driving bit.

      Random sources: https://www.smh.com.au/world/us-presidents-can-have-everything--except-the-car-keys-20140506-zr5we.html

      https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/28/presidents-arent-allowed-to-drive.html

      And one just about some times they drove anyway:

      https://www.motorbiscuit.com/3-u-s-presidents-got-around-no-driving-rule/

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      10 hours ago

      to be clear, the secret service cannot prohibit the president from doing anything they really want to do

      Was Trump lying when he said the SS wouldn’t take him back to the capital on Jan 6?

      I could definitely see him lying about that so he doesn’t look like he abandoned his supporters during the coup, but I could also see the driver being like “I can’t endanger you, mr president” and ignoring his requests.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Was Trump lying when he said the SS wouldn’t take him back to the capital on Jan 6?

        Definitely not. There is no way in hell the secret service would have taken the president to that shit show. Doesn’t mean that they would have physically arrested him if he insisted going on his own, however.