Cheap plastic heads trick Tesla’s Autopilot cameras in China

Chinese Drivers Use Cheap Plastic Figurines to Fool Tesla’s Autopilot Cameras

Just weeks after Tesla launched its Full Self-Driving system in China, a cottage industry of cheap gadgets designed to defeat the car’s driver-monitoring cameras has emerged on Chinese e-commerce platforms. For as little as $10, drivers can purchase plastic figurines — including celebrity lookalikes — blinking LED screens, and other DIY devices that trick the in-cabin camera into believing an attentive human is watching the road.

How the Devices Work

Tesla’s driver-monitoring system uses a cabin-facing camera above the rearview mirror to track head position and eye movement, ensuring drivers remain attentive while assisted-driving features handle steering and acceleration. The defeat devices exploit this by placing a realistic-looking object in the camera’s field of view that mimics a forward-facing human head.techbuzz

According to Wired, whose reporting was shared on June 12, the products range from celebrity figurines — one popular model resembles Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — to small screens displaying blinking eyes. Priced between $10 and $40, the devices can be mounted on the car’s ceiling, windshield, or rearview mirror, positioned to block the actual driver’s head from the camera’s view. This allows drivers to look away from the road, use their phones, or even sleep while Autopilot remains engaged.uga

A Familiar Vulnerability

The phenomenon is not entirely new. Tesla has long battled defeat devices — the company introduced detection software as early as 2022, warning that drivers caught using such gadgets would be excluded from its FSD Beta program. A June 2026 video demonstration also showed that Tesla’s driver monitoring on FSD version 14.3.3 could be defeated simply by wearing sunglasses, with a test driver able to close their eyes for two full minutes without triggering a warning.tesmanian

The timing of the Chinese market’s workaround boom coincides with Tesla’s long-awaited FSD launch in the country. Tesla made FSD Supervised available in China in May 2026, following years of regulatory delays. The system requires drivers to remain attentive and ready to take control at all times — a requirement these devices are designed to circumvent.cnbc

Safety Concerns

The proliferation of such gadgets raises questions about whether Tesla’s monitoring technology is adequate for a system marketed under the “Full Self-Driving” name. Despite its branding, FSD Supervised is a Level 2 driver-assistance system that requires constant human oversight. Safety advocates have long argued that Tesla’s monitoring lags behind competitors like General Motors, whose Super Cruise system uses infrared eye-tracking that is harder to fool.cnbc

Tesla has not publicly commented on the Chinese defeat-device market. The company charges 64,000 yuan (approximately $9,400) for its intelligent assisted-driving package in China.cnbc