YouTuber Mark Rober’s Tesla Autopilot ‘crash test’ sparks hoax accusations: ‘Should sue the pants off this guy’

YouTuber Mark Rober is facing backlash over a recent video that depicted a spectacular “crash test” of Tesla’s Autopilot feature — with critics claiming it was a hoax orchestrated to hurt Elon Musk’s automaker.

In a video posted to his YouTube channel over the weekend, Rober’s Tesla Model Y seemingly failed to detect a Wile E. Coyote-style wall painted to look like a road – crashing through and demolishing a mannequin designed to look like a child.

But a LiDAR-equipped vehicle featured in the same video appeared to pass the test with flying colors. Rober praised LiDAR tech company Luminar so often throughout the segment that viewers questioned whether the footage was tampered with as part of an elaborate advertisement.