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

Researchers used simple mirrors placed on traffic cones to completely fool self-driving cars' laser detection systems, making real obstacles invisible and creating fake obstacles where none existed. In repeated tests using popular autonomous vehicle software, the mirror tricks worked every time, causing cars to either attempt driving through actual cones or refusing to turn due to phantom objects, highlighting major security vulnerabilities in current self-driving technology.