Tesla Model 3 Sees Self-Replicating Motorcycles That Are Not Actually There

By design, online forums are places where people can go and find answers to whatever problems they may encounter with pretty much everything. They’ve been around ever since the Internet allowed them to be, and pretty much all cars made since, even the dumb ones, have chatrooms dedicated to solving problems.

In Tesla’s case, these forums have quite different topics than what we’re used to when it comes to regular cars. That’s because the vehicles themselves are so advanced and packed with tech that the percentage of software-related issues at times exceeds the mechanical-related ones.

One of the most recent such issues, posted a few minutes ago (at the time of writing), has to do with a Tesla Model 3 detecting objects around it that are not actually there.

The post on Tesla Motor Club, backed by a video posted on YouTube (available below) reveals how, while parked inside a garage, the car detects all sorts of things moving around it: the owner speaks of motorcycles, tractor-trailers, and even bodies.

We don’t get to see all that in the images made public, but we are treated with a “phantom gang” of bikers moving in all directions, at times even colliding with each other, and even self-replicating from a point to the left of the car to move away from it. Why, at one point we even get to see a flying cardboard box for some reason.

Teslas misidentifying objects is not a new issue. Back in the summer of 2022, we were treated to a moving one mistaking a horse-drawn carriage for a full-blown semi-truck. Last year, one of these cars mistook the Moon (yep, the one in the sky) for a traffic light. And there are probably a lot more examples we’re yet to hear about.

In this particular case, we’re not told what kind of objects lie around the car for it to detect and mistake for motorcycles, but there is probably an explanation for all of this.

Unfortunately for this Model 3’s owner, that explanation could probably only be found on forums, where she asked for help, as according to her, after talking to the “service center folks” the only answers she got were shrugs. So far, though, no one seems to have an answer there either.

Tesla cars use a combination of cameras, ultrasonic sensors, and radar to perceive the world around them. An artificial intelligence of sorts interprets the data it receives from the sensors in something that makes sense to it and its drivers. Problem is, as seen here, something doesn’t always make sense.