Tesla Autopilot driver‑monitor fooled by plastic Ronaldo heads in China

In China, some Tesla owners have begun attaching inexpensive plastic figurines of soccer stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to the interior camera that monitors driver attention. The small heads, sold online for $10‑40, are positioned on the windshield directly in the camera’s field of view. Because Tesla’s driver‑monitoring system relies on a simple color camera above the rear‑view mirror, the static face is interpreted as a real driver looking forward, allowing Autopilot or Full‑Self‑Driving (Supervised) to remain active without triggering distraction warnings. Owners have reported driving for several tens of minutes under Autopilot while the system believes the driver is attentive. The practice has raised safety concerns, with experts noting that more advanced eye‑tracking technologies would be harder to deceive, and warning that the workaround could endanger occupants and other road users if the human driver becomes inattentive.

The phenomenon surfaced shortly after Tesla introduced its Full‑Self‑Driving (Supervised) package in the Chinese market, prompting scrutiny of the effectiveness of the camera‑based monitoring approach.