Chinese Drivers Are Using Tiny Plastic Heads to Fool Tesla’s Autopilot Safeguards
Chinese Drivers Are Using Tiny Plastic Heads to Fool Tesla’s Autopilot Safeguards
中国司机正利用微型塑料人头绕过特斯拉的自动驾驶安全监测
In China, for just $30, you can have Dwayne Johnson drive your Tesla for you. Sounds too cheap to be true? Well, it is. What you’re actually buying is a tiny replica of The Rock’s head, designed to sit above the rearview mirror and trick Tesla into thinking an attentive driver is behind the wheel. Tesla’s self-driving system appears unable to tell the difference between the figurines and a real person, allowing the actual driver to look away from the road, scroll through their phone, or even doze off—activities that are supposed to be prohibited while assisted-driving features are engaged.
在中国，只需 30 美元，你就能让“巨石”强森（Dwayne Johnson）为你驾驶特斯拉。听起来便宜得不可思议？确实如此。你买到的其实是一个强森的微型人头模型，它被设计安装在后视镜上方，旨在欺骗特斯拉，让系统误以为驾驶座上有一位专注的司机。特斯拉的自动驾驶系统似乎无法分辨这些玩偶与真人，这使得真正的驾驶员可以分心看路外、刷手机，甚至打瞌睡——而这些行为在开启辅助驾驶功能时本应是被禁止的。
Last week, videos showing the miniature heads at work inside Tesla cars went viral. I fell into a deep rabbit hole browsing ecommerce sites and online forums to learn more about where they came from. The figurines come in dozens of varieties, most depicting Hollywood or Chinese celebrities. Some appear to be repurposed dolls or figurines. They are just one example of the creative, but also potentially dangerous, ways that Chinese Tesla owners are trying to circumvent the car maker’s safety guardrails.
上周，展示这些微型人头在特斯拉车内“工作”的视频在网上疯传。我深入挖掘了各大电商平台和在线论坛，试图了解它们的来源。这些玩偶种类繁多，大多是好莱坞或中国明星的形象。有些看起来像是改装过的玩偶或手办。这只是中国特斯拉车主试图绕过汽车制造商安全防线时，所采取的众多极具创意却又充满危险的方法之一。
On Chinese ecommerce platforms like Taobao, Xianyu, and Douyin, listings for the heads are easy to find. They are priced anywhere from $10 to $40, depending on how sophisticated they are. They can be installed on the car’s ceiling, windshield, or rearview mirror, and are carefully positioned to block the actual driver’s head and nothing else.
在淘宝、闲鱼和抖音等中国电商平台上，很容易就能找到这些产品的销售信息。根据制作精细程度，价格从 10 美元到 40 美元不等。它们可以安装在车顶、挡风玻璃或后视镜上，并经过精心定位，以确保刚好遮挡住真实驾驶员的头部，而不影响其他视野。
One Tesla Model 3 owner in China told me that his miniature head works perfectly. (He asked to remain anonymous because Tesla doesn’t allow such DIY workarounds.) During a recent road trip, he says he turned on highway autopilot and put the fake head (a bald man, which, in classic knockoff fashion, looks slightly off but still closely resembles Dwayne Johnson) on for about 250 miles of the 400-mile trip. Normally, Tesla quickly intervenes when it detects a distracted driver. With the head in place, he says he could go 30 minutes without being interrupted.
一位中国的特斯拉 Model 3 车主告诉我，他的微型人头模型效果极佳。（他要求匿名，因为特斯拉不允许此类自行改装的行为。）在最近的一次公路旅行中，他说自己开启了高速公路自动辅助驾驶，并在 400 英里的行程中，有约 250 英里都挂着这个假人头（一个光头男子，带有典型的山寨风格，看起来有点怪，但确实很像“巨石”强森）。通常情况下，当特斯拉检测到驾驶员分心时会迅速介入，但有了这个假人头，他说自己可以连续 30 分钟不被系统打断。
In a video he sent me, the driver was using one hand to snack on roasted sunflower seeds and another hand to film, while the fake head suctioned to the rearview mirror blocked the camera from seeing any of what he was doing. “You should buy a toy head about the size of a ping pong ball,” the driver said on a Chinese video platform where Tesla drivers were exchanging tips with one another. “If it’s too small, the camera won’t be able to focus on the toy.”
在他发给我的一段视频中，这位司机一只手在吃炒瓜子，另一只手在拍摄，而吸附在后视镜上的假人头挡住了摄像头，使其无法看到他的任何动作。“你应该买一个乒乓球大小的玩具头，”这位司机在特斯拉车主交流心得的中国视频平台上说道，“如果太小，摄像头就无法对焦到玩具上。”
Tesla’s most advanced driver-assistance system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), is still not available in China. Drivers in the country can currently only access more basic features for cruise control, autosteering, and autopilot on some urban roads. Because the cars are not fully autonomous, Tesla requires that drivers still pay attention to the road. It uses a variety of monitoring features to make sure they aren’t distracted, including a camera located above the windshield. If the car detects that a driver is not looking ahead for a few seconds, it will ask them to redirect their attention immediately. If they don’t comply, Tesla can automatically shut off autopilot mode or even ban the driver for a week from using driver-assistance features.
特斯拉最先进的驾驶辅助系统“全自动驾驶（监督版）”（FSD Supervised）目前尚未在中国推出。国内司机目前只能使用定速巡航、自动转向以及部分城市道路上的自动辅助驾驶等基础功能。由于车辆并非完全自动驾驶，特斯拉要求驾驶员必须时刻关注路况。它利用多种监测功能来确保驾驶员不分心，其中包括位于挡风玻璃上方的摄像头。如果车辆检测到驾驶员几秒钟内没有注视前方，它会立即要求驾驶员将注意力转回。如果驾驶员不配合，特斯拉可以自动关闭自动驾驶模式，甚至禁止该驾驶员使用驾驶辅助功能一周。
Tesla drivers in other markets, including the US, have long searched for ways to get around their car’s safety controls. People have tried everything from wearing sunglasses to make it harder for the camera to track the eyeballs to installing weights on their steering wheel to trick the system into thinking they are still holding on. On Reddit, some users even claimed to have sought out slightly older car models that have less capable cameras and sensors.
包括美国在内的其他市场的特斯拉车主，长期以来一直在寻找绕过车辆安全控制的方法。人们尝试了各种手段，从佩戴太阳镜以增加摄像头追踪眼球的难度，到在方向盘上安装配重块，诱骗系统认为驾驶员仍握着方向盘。在 Reddit 上，一些用户甚至声称专门寻找摄像头和传感器功能较弱的旧款车型。
The latest wave of camera-tricking gadgets began spreading in China in October, shortly after Tesla pushed out a software update in the country that activated distracted-driver monitoring through the vehicle’s in-cabin camera. People quickly began searching for ways to get around the system. Some drivers used webcam covers to block the camera completely, but then Tesla issued a notice warning car owners that the assisted driving features would no longer work if the camera was obstructed. That’s when the fake heads emerged.
最新一波“欺骗摄像头”的小工具于 10 月开始在中国流行，当时特斯拉在中国推送了一次软件更新，激活了通过车内摄像头进行的驾驶员分心监测功能。人们很快开始寻找绕过该系统的方法。一些司机使用摄像头遮盖贴完全挡住镜头，但特斯拉随后发布通知警告车主，如果摄像头被遮挡，辅助驾驶功能将无法使用。于是，假人头便应运而生了。
Creative Workarounds / 创意变通方案
Instead of a 3D head, some Tesla drivers in China simply hang a static picture of a person in front of the camera. Others take it a step further and use lenticular prints—the ridged novelty cards that switch between multiple images when viewed from different angles. One popular version alternates between photos of the same person with their eyes open and closed, creating the illusion of blinking as the card gently sways while the car is in motion.
除了 3D 人头模型，一些中国特斯拉车主干脆在摄像头前挂一张静态的人像照片。另一些人则更进一步，使用光栅印刷品——即那种从不同角度观看时会切换不同图像的纹理卡片。一种流行的版本是在同一个人睁眼和闭眼的照片之间切换，当卡片随着车辆行驶轻轻晃动时，会产生眨眼的错觉。
The most technologically advanced gadget I’ve seen is a pocket-sized display screen that is also meant to be put in front of the in-cabin camera. It plays a looped video of a person blinking their eyes and moving their head. Posing as a prospective buyer, I contacted the seller, who claimed that it has been tested on Tesla’s Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck, and can achieve “0% error rate.” They also claimed to have already sold the device to customers in the US, Canada, and Korea, who have access to the full suite of FSD features, and the tiny screen worked for all of them.
我见过的技术含量最高的小工具是一个口袋大小的显示屏，同样是放在车内摄像头前。它循环播放一段人眨眼和转头的视频。我以潜在买家的身份联系了卖家，对方声称该设备已在特斯拉 Model S、Model X 和 Cybertruck 上进行过测试，可以实现“零错误率”。他们还声称已经将该设备卖给了美国、加拿大和韩国的客户，这些地区的车主可以使用全套 FSD 功能，而这个小屏幕对他们全都有效。
At this point, these camera-tricking gadgets still seem to be a niche market dominated by DIY sellers. The product listings I found appeared to have sold only a few dozen units apiece. But if they get more popular, it’s hard to imagine that Tesla won’t try to crack down on the industry. I contacted Tesla to ask if it is aware of these products and whether it plans to take any action against sellers, but the company didn’t respond.
目前，这些欺骗摄像头的小工具似乎仍是一个由 DIY 卖家主导的小众市场。我发现的产品列表显示，每款产品的销量似乎只有几十件。但如果它们变得更加流行，很难想象特斯拉不会试图打击这一产业。我联系了特斯拉，询问其是否知晓这些产品以及是否计划对卖家采取行动，但该公司未予置评。
Not everyone is enthusiastic about these gadgets, and many people on Chinese social media have criticized their use. In the comments under promotional videos, people often compare them to clips that allow drivers to avoid putting on a seatbelt while driving. Both product categories…
并非所有人都对这些小工具感到兴奋，中国社交媒体上的许多人也批评了这种行为。在宣传视频的评论区，人们经常将它们与那些让司机在开车时无需系安全带的插扣相提并论。这两类产品……