Putting Mirrors on Traffic Cones Causes Self-Driving Cars to Melt Down, Confounding Lidar

Putting Mirrors on Traffic Cones Causes Self-Driving Cars to Melt Down, Confounding Lidar

Researchers have engineered the ultimate nemesis of self-driving cars: mirror-adorned traffic cones. In a series of tests highlighted by The Register, a team from France and Germany showed that their optical sleight of hand could easily dupe lidar-equipped autonomous cars into not recognizing obstacles on the road.  Time after time, the experiments showed, the correct mirror placement left the cars oblivious and attempting to plow through sacrif…

The Register: Boffins fool a self-driving car by putting mirrors on traffic cones | ResearchBuzz: Firehose

The Register: Boffins fool a self-driving car by putting mirrors on traffic cones. “A team of scientists from France and Germany demonstrated the techniques in a university campus parking lot. They successfully made a car fitted with LIDAR, running the popular Autoware navigation code, to either fail to recognize and attempt to drive through an obstacle, or convince the car to brake unexpectedly to avoid an object that wasn’t there.”The post The…