Mark Rober’s Tesla Autopilot video manipulation raises questions

YouTuber Mark Rober’s Tesla Autopilot test has already become controversial, and his new clarification clip is now receiving some backlash due to manipulation.

A few days ago, Mark published a video testing Tesla Autopilot with vision (camera) system against Luminar’s Lidar equipped Lexus vehicle. The test had six segments including detection of a kid, a darting kid, fog, rain, heavy light and a fake wall.

The Lidar vehicle cleared all tests, but Tesla failed in fog, rain and wall smash. This test is receiving wide attention on social media site X due to the final result, especially the wall test.

The YouTube video shows that the Autopilot was engaged less than half of the distance from the overall run. On the other hand, the Lidar car had its autopilot engaged from the head start.

As an explanation, Mark posted a new clip on X to show Autopilot engagement. He says, “Not sure why it disengages 17 frames before hitting the wall, but my feet weren’t touching the brake or gas”.

But it only increased doubts, here are a few things to notice.

What’s the difference?

• The YouTube video shows Autopilot engagement at 39/40MPH
• The X clip shows Autopilot engagement at 42MPH
• The distance between the car and the wall is different on YouTube and X videos.

I have some questions:

1) Your video “Can You Fool a Self-Driving Car?” uses Luminar’s latest tech but not Tesla’s latest FSD software. Why?

2) Autopilot was turned on at 42 MPH in your YouTube video but you turned it on at 39/40 MPH in your clip above. Why? Multiple takes?

3)… pic.twitter.com/TE0BZozNL8

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) March 17, 2025

Multiple takes

These differences suggest that the YouTuber may have captured different takes of the entire test. The autopilot part speaks for itself and also questions other tests. And why not, Mark didn’t show the Tesla’s front screen throughout his YouTube video.

Title

The video is titled “Can you fool a Self Driving Car” but Tesla was using Autopilot and not Full Self Driving.

The Autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system designed to improve driver’s safety. It means that the driver is still responsible for driving the car. On the other hand, FSD is superior to Autopilot, including driver monitored self-driving, safety and more.

Last Test

The test includes a dummy behind the wall, which was staged to trick the car. One more thing is that no road has such trickery to dilute a car’s sensors or safety system, or a person will move behind such a staged wall on a highway or an active road.

Eventually, it comes down to this, when Tesla engaged Autopilot and that makes a big difference to truly doubt its safety system. While Tesla’s vision technology is debatable, we also cannot rule out questioning the YouTuber’s test practices.