Flashing Lights Give Autonomous Tech ‘Seizures’

With advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) becoming a safety requirement in new cars, more information is being learned about their flaws and weaknesses.

A new study from Japanese giant Fujitsu and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel claims flashing lights have the ability to disrupt camera-based ADAS technology, industry outlet Automotive News reports.

Researchers identified 16 documented instances of Tesla vehicles crashing into parked emergency vehicles when the semi-autonomous ‘Autopilot’ feature was engaged, prompting the study into how flighting lights affect ADAS.

The report claims camera-based ADAS technology – such as those used by Tesla – could become confused by flashing lights, with the research team finding the system suffers from ‘digital epileptic seizures’.

While camera-based systems use vision to identify obstacles, other ADAS systems can use radar or LiDAR to scan the road ahead – no matter the lighting conditions.

"The [digital epileptic seizures] phenomenon highlights the important distinction that the ability of autonomous systems to implicitly handle these situations is still far from the level of a human," David Doria, director of engineering and automated driving at Magna, told AutoNews.

The study suggested the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles likely contributed to the 16 crashes, but pointed out the systems could be easily confused by nefarious actors with basic strobe lights.

It comes just weeks after the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) discovered reflective bands commonly worn by road workers at night could be invisible to ADAS technology.

The bands, typically stitched around the arms and legs of the overalls worn by road workers to make them more visible to drivers, seemed to have the opposite effect on ADAS.

According to the IIHS, carmakers were made aware of the dangers prior to publishing the research, and have begun working on solutions.

It’s understood the IIHS tested the reflective overalls against ADAS technologies used by three 2023 vehicles: a Honda CR-V, a Mazda CX-5, and a Subaru Forester.

The trial found the Subaru performed the best in low-light situations, despite being a camera-based ADAS, known as ‘Eyesight’.