In China, for simply $30, you possibly can have Dwayne Johnson drive your Tesla for you. Sounds too low-cost to be true? Properly, it’s. What you’re really shopping for is a tiny reproduction of The Rock’s head, designed to take a seat above the rearview mirror and trick Tesla into pondering an attentive driver is behind the wheel. Tesla’s self-driving system seems unable to inform the distinction between the collectible figurines and an actual particular person, permitting the precise driver to look away from the highway, scroll via their telephone, and even fall asleep—actions which can be alleged to be prohibited whereas assisted-driving features are engaged.
Final week, movies displaying the miniature heads at work inside Tesla automobiles went viral. I fell right into a deep rabbit gap shopping ecommerce websites and on-line boards to study extra about the place they got here from. The collectible figurines are available in dozens of sorts, most depicting Hollywood or Chinese language celebrities. Some look like repurposed dolls or collectible figurines. They’re only one instance of the artistic, but additionally potentially dangerous, ways in which Chinese language Tesla homeowners try to avoid the automobile maker’s security guardrails.
On Chinese language ecommerce platforms like Taobao, Xianyu, and Douyin, listings for the heads are straightforward to seek out. They’re priced wherever from $10 to $40, relying on how subtle they’re. They are often put in on the automobile’s ceiling, windshield, or rearview mirror, and are fastidiously positioned to dam the precise driver’s head and nothing else.
One Tesla Mannequin 3 proprietor in China instructed me that his miniature head works completely. (He requested to stay nameless as a result of Tesla doesn’t permit such DIY workarounds.) Throughout a current highway journey, he says he turned on freeway autopilot and put the faux head (a bald man, which, in basic knockoff vogue, seems barely off however nonetheless intently resembles Dwayne Johnson) on for about 250 miles of the 400-mile journey. Usually, Tesla shortly intervenes when it detects a distracted driver. With the pinnacle in place, he says he might go half-hour with out being interrupted.
In a video he despatched me, the motive force was utilizing one hand to snack on roasted sunflower seeds and one other hand to movie, whereas the faux head suctioned to the rearview mirror blocked the digital camera from seeing any of what he was doing. “You should purchase a toy head concerning the dimension of a ping pong ball,” the motive force stated on a Chinese language video platform the place Tesla drivers had been exchanging suggestions with each other. “If it’s too small, the digital camera gained’t be capable of deal with the toy.”
Tesla’s most superior driver-assistance system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), continues to be not obtainable in China. Drivers within the nation can presently solely entry more basic features for cruise management, autosteering, and autopilot on some city roads. As a result of the automobiles will not be totally autonomous, Tesla requires that drivers nonetheless take note of the highway. It makes use of quite a lot of monitoring features to ensure they aren’t distracted, together with a digital camera positioned above the windshield. If the automobile detects {that a} driver is just not trying forward for a couple of seconds, it’s going to ask them to redirect their consideration instantly. In the event that they don’t comply, Tesla can automatically shut off autopilot mode and even ban the motive force for every week from utilizing driver-assistance options.
Tesla drivers in different markets, together with the US, have lengthy searched for methods to get round their automobile’s security controls. Individuals have tried all the pieces from wearing sunglasses to make it tougher for the digital camera to trace the eyeballs to installing weights on their steering wheel to trick the system into pondering they’re nonetheless holding on. On Reddit, some customers even claimed to have sought out slightly older car models which have much less succesful cameras and sensors.
