“So here’s the secret…”
The driver attentiveness tracking system is widely detested. A Tesla driver says he’s found a simple way to fool it that calls to mind the classic 80s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Much like the titular character, who used a dummy and a recording to pretend he was home in bed with the flu, his solution is surprisingly low-tech. But he swears by it.
Tesla Model Y driver (@numnuts352) shared his methodology in a short video.
“So here’s the secret,” he says. He focuses on the EV’s exterior glass and the nature of his hack becomes clear. There’s a photo there of him sitting in the driver’s seat. He says that because the image of him looking at the road is constantly being displayed to the Tesla’s inside dash cam, he’s able to fool its software.
He says the Tesla believes the image pasted in front of the interior dash lens is genuine. This purportedly allows him to take his hands off the wheel and browse his phone, read a book, or do whatever he wants without activating his Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised functionality.
“Look at that guy driving. Takes me all the way home,” he says cheekily.
According to the Tesla’s website, drivers who’ve either subscribed to or purchased FSD packages can’t just turn it on and go to sleep behind the wheel.
“Full Self-Driving (Supervised) requires a fully attentive driver and will display a series of escalating warnings requiring driver response,” Tesla writes. This requires drivers to “remain attentive and be ready to take over at all times while Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is engaged.”
Teslas have security measures to ensure their compliance. “The cabin monitors driver attentiveness,” per the owner’s manual.
Further clarification is provided under the “Driver Attentiveness” section of its manual.
“When the cabin camera is actively monitoring driver attentiveness, a green indicator appears in the status bar,” Tesla writes. When the dash camera notices a “driver repeatedly look away from the road, the touchscreen displays a warning.” The carmaker adds that this dialog box will disappear “once the driver begins paying attention to the road again.”
If a Tesla driver consistently ignores these messages, then their car disables FSD for the duration of the drive. Additionally, FSD’s camera monitoring is programmed to detect whether a driver is using a smartphone or other apparatus while driving.
“If the camera detects a handheld device while Self-Driving is engaged, the touchscreen displays a message reminding you to pay attention,” Tesla says.
Tesla addresses hacks like the one presented in the above-referenced Model Y driver’s post. The company expressly states that any attempts to “circumvent drive attentiveness is a violation of the terms of use for Self-Driving and may result in the feature being permanently disabled.” Moreover, the EV maker says that “use of Self-Driving features will be suspended if improper usage is detected.”
Other Tesla owners have discovered alternate methods rooted in the same camera-fooling trick used in @numnuts352’s social media post.
InsideEVs previously reported on drivers putting doll heads in view of their Tesla interior dashcams to trick its observational programming. These purportedly worked like a charm. In fact, Wired writes that there’s a China-based company that markets these heads directly to Tesla owners. Some drivers buy miniature cranial replicas of popular celebrities. So there are a slew of Teslas that believe Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is responsibly utilizing its FSD (Supervised) software.
Back in 2022, an upload to Reddit’s r/RealTesla page showed a picture of a driver rocking a face mask using a physical photo to bypass Tesla’s attentiveness security protocols. “Tesla attention awareness feature easily defeated by printed image,” the post reads.
People who commented on the post claimed it was made possible due to Tesla’s reliance on camera technology for its FSD (Supervised) protocols, as opposed to Lidar, infrared, or radar systems. “And this is why Ford and GM use infrared cameras … they work at night … they aren’t easily defeated by a 2D image like this. You need like a dummy or something sitting in the driver’s seat, which is way more effort,” one said.
Some weren’t convinced that people would actually try to trick Tesla’s FSD system.
One person wrote, “No one is going to go to that imbecile level effort and look like a clown to ‘fool’ the system.” Another argued, “No one is going to hold a picture of themselves up to a camera either.” Someone countered, “But they might tape it to the ceiling.”
It turns out they couldn’t be more wrong.
Motor1 has reached out to Tesla via email and @numnuts352 via TikTok direct message for further information.
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