- An intricate doll head is all that’s needed to trick a new Tesla.
- A Chinese retailer is selling these tiny heads for just $23 online.
- Tesla only recently launched Full-Self Driving (Supervised) in China.
How easy is it to fool Tesla’s driver monitoring system? As it turns out, it’s extraordinarily easy, with one Tesla owner in China creating and selling miniature plastic doll heads that’ll convince Tesla’s onboard cameras that you’re paying attention to the road.
Unlike most car manufacturers, which place driver monitoring systems behind the steering wheel or on the A-pillar, Tesla uses a small camera positioned above the rearview mirror to ensure drivers remain focused. However, owners in China have found that if a small doll head is positioned in front of this camera, hanging from a suction cup affixed to the windshield, it’s enough to fool the camera into thinking it’s a real human head.
One Tesla Model 3 owner told Wired that he used one of the figurines during a road trip and was able to go roughly 30 minutes without receiving a distracted-driver warning while Autopilot was active.
Watch: Viral Video Shows Older Tesla Driver And Passenger Both Asleep At Highway Speed
Tesla was long criticized for not offering a driver-monitoring system despite selling vehicles with advanced, semi-autonomous driver-assistance technologies. While Tesla models do now have a monitoring system, some owners are clearly eager to side-step any technology that could prevent them from dozing off while behind the wheel.
Dangerous Or Funny?
The car manufacturer only recently introduced its Full-Self Driving (Supervised) system in China and rolled out the technology alongside an improved driver monitoring system. Digital Trends reports that, in addition to some owners using detailed doll heads to fool the system, others have started positioning small screens in front of the camera that play looping videos of a person’s face blinking and moving naturally.
The figurines at the center of these recent videos spreading across social media can be purchased online anywhere from $10 to $40. They include the faces of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and generic male faces.
Obviously, using a product like this to fool the in-car driver-monitoring system while you’re using the vehicle’s self-driving systems is incredibly dangerous, not just to yourself but also to other road users. It’ll be interesting to see whether these cheap workarounds prompt Tesla to improve its systems, potentially adding sensors and cameras that better detect a real human face.
