Mirrors can fool the Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors used to guide autonomous vehicles by making them detect objects that don’t exist, or failing to detect actual obstacles.

A team of scientists from France and Germany demonstrated the techniques in a university campus parking lot. They successfully made a car fitted with LIDAR, running the popular Autoware navigation code, to either fail to recognize and attempt to drive through an obstacle, or convince the car to brake unexpectedly to avoid an object that wasn't there.

LIDAR is used on most self-driving cars – Tesla is the exception – and uses laser pulses to measure the physical environment, but is known to struggle with reflective surfaces. Last year a team of eggheads managed to fool LIDAR with tinfoil and colored swatch

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