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All you need to fool Tesla’s autopilot into changing lane is a handful of stickers.

Tesla’s autopilot uses cameras to detect lane markings, so that it can position itself in the middle of the road and automatically change lanes when required. A team at Keen Security Labs, run by Chinese technology giant Tencent, managed to confuse the system on a Tesla Model S with just three stickers placed on the road.

The car’s autopilot system incorrectly classified the stickers, which were placed over road markings to make a jagged, rather than straight-edged. This caused the Tesla to .

The hack works because Tesla’s front-facing camera can’t easily distinguish between the genuine markings on the ground and the stickers.

Tesla drivers have been able to use autopilot since 2014, with the capabilities of the system increasing incrementally year-on-year. The 2017 update included autosteer functionality. Tesla founder Elon Musk has previously claimed its driver aids can improve safety by up to 50 per cent.

“This kind of attack is simple to deploy, and the materials are easy to obtain,” the researchers say in .

Tesla declined to comment specifically on the findings, but the company told New ������ý that the scenario Keen Labs created is not a real-world concern because drivers can easily override autopilot settings and take control of the car themselves.

“Yes, a human could take over, but the indications we have of real-world uses of these sorts of systems by humans are not good,” says Jason Griffey of Harvard University. “We’ve seen examples of people literally sleeping while an autonomous car drives them somewhere.”

The lane change trick wasn’t the only issue the Keen Security researchers uncovered: they managed to turn on the windscreen wipers in dry weather, and also control the steering system with a wireless gamepad.