Sensation without perception: The white whale effect and perceptual blindness in autonomous vehicles
Journal
Journal of Vision
Journal Volume
26
Journal Issue
6
Start Page
11
ISSN
1534-7362
Date Issued
2026-06-26
Author(s)
Abstract
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) use sensors that exceed human capabilities in resolution and reaction speed, yet a catastrophic failure mode persists: the inability to detect massive, white obstacles (such as semi-trailers) against bright skies. Although engineering analyses attribute these accidents to sensor dynamic range or radar filtration errors, we argue they represent a fundamental failure of perceptual organization. We propose the term “white whale effect” to describe a form of machine visual blindness where high-luminance objects are misclassified as ambient background because of failures in lightness anchoring, figure-ground segregation, and global motion perception. We conclude that safer AV perception requires moving beyond pixel-level classification to architectures constrained by the principles of psychophysics.
Subjects
autonomous vehicles
color constancy
computer vision
figure-ground segregation
psychophysics
visual agnosia
Publisher
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Type
journal article