By Chris Tsui
You know that Looney Tunes gag where Wile E. Coyote paints a picture of a tunnel on a wall so the Road Runner will run into it? You have to assume real people in the real world are smart enough not to fall for such things, but that might be optimistic because police in Macon, Missouri reported over the weekend that they got multiple calls from concerned citizens about a man "standing in the back of a semi trailer for a long period of time."
Here's the man in question:
In case you couldn't tell, that's a sticker depicting a man standing next to a bunch of boxes photographed in such a way that it looks like you're peering into the actual back of the truck. In defense of everybody who called 911, though, better safe than sorry... I guess?
Gerenme/Getty Images
Kudos to the graphic designer responsible because the decal even includes the bottom of the would-be opened door, complete with the Kohl Wholesale website and "CAUTION—THIS VEHICLE MAKES WIDE TURNS" sticker.
Look, we can laugh at the Looney Tunes thing all day, but coincidentally, a single-vehicle accident did indeed happen earlier this week when a car hit a wall, appearing to mistake a mural for a tunnel in Glasgow, Scotland, per News.com.au. Last year, Tesla's semi-autonomous driving software failed the "Road Runner test," smashing into a wall with a picture of a road painted on it instead of coming to a stop.
Perhaps the engineers (or AI) responsible for developing smart car features will have to start training camera systems to not automatically call the authorities when cameras detect *checks notes* cardboard cutouts of guys standing inside of moving semi trucks.
