Fooling Systems

Tesla Motors’ vehicles have been under close scrutiny after several incidents and a reported autopilot-related fatality. The government has already vowed investigations, and the reliability of the system is being questioned.
But what if somebody wanted to crash a Tesla set to autopilot? Could the system actually be fooled into crashing? As it turns out, yes.
Academics from Zhejiang University, University of South Carolina, and Chinese security giant, Qihoo 360, have been able to fool Tesla’s autopilot’s sensors. The researchers tricked the sensors, making them perceive an object where none existed, or overlook a real object in the Tesla’s path.

All-Out Attack

The researchers attempted to fool all three of Tesla’s autopilot’s detection systems, radar, ultrasonic sensors, and cameras. To fool the radar systems, they used two pieces of radio equipment—a $90,000 signal generator from Keysight Technologies and an equally-expensive VDI frequency multiplier. Both were used to drown out the radio waves bouncing from the cart back to the Tesla, making the obstacle “invisible” to Tesla’s autopilot and disappear from its screen.