Man Escaping From Maruti Baleno Being Dragged By A Truck: It's FAKE (Video)
It isn’t rare to come across bizarre crashes and mishaps on Indian roads. These days, we see videos of many such accidents pop up on social media, thanks to the increasing acceptance of dashcameras and helmet/gear-mounted action cameras. These often rack up views online. Today, there are content creators who have based their entire video businesses on crash footages and accident videos. A recent video shared on social media shows two men in a Maruti Suzuki Baleno escaping unhurt after it was hit by a tanker truck. The video has been racking up views online and has sparked discussions online. What if we told you that it was all fake? Upon closer inspection, we found out that this is just an AI-generated clip with incredible detailing...
It begins by showing a huge tanker truck hitting and pushing a White Maruti Baleno along the road at a T-junction. It decelerates gradually and comes to a complete halt, pushing the car along all the while. Midway, we see the Baleno’s left rear door open, and a man jumps out of it. He seems unhurt and runs to safety. After the car stops, we see another man, much older, get out visibly unhurt.
The front bumper of the truck seems to have made contact with the right doors of the car. The video, however, doesn’t show the extent of damage it has caused. The right pillars and the overall structure seem mostly in shape.
Let’s now deconstruct the clip. It seems to be well-shot. In fact, too well shot! The camera movements seem smooth and cinematic. Usually in such cases, a dashcam mounted in a car or an action camera attached to the helmet or riding gear of a biker captures the accident.
If it were recorded on a dash-camera, we would see the vehicle’s windscreen and possibly portions of its bonnet too, on the video. There would be noticeable imperfections in such visuals. Plus, as the ‘camera vehicle’ moves, we may also see minor shakes and vibrations in the recorded footage. This, however, is something that differs between dashcam models and the stabilisation levels they offer. From the way it is filmed, this is clearly not dashcam footage!
The next possibility is of a motorcycle rider using an action camera. In this clip, we can hear the feeble rumble of a motorcycle engine. The person who made this video really wanted us to believe this to be the case! But here’s when details matter. If this video was filmed by a biker’s action camera, the angle seen here would also cover parts of the motorcycle and maybe even his arms- none of these can be seen in the clip here!
Most dashcams and action cameras offer audio recordings. Sounds of the truck pushing the car and tyres squealing are audible in this clip. It, however, has no sounds of exclamation or human reactions recorded from close proximity when the crash occurs.
This can never be the case if a biker recorded the video, as the camera then sits closer to his body and would capture each of his reactions or whatever he speaks then. Here, it is almost like the person who filmed this remained totally silent and unbothered, and casually pulled over after the massive truck dragged the car along for a couple of metres!
If we were to say, the filming, stabilisation, and camera movement here make the video feel like it was shot with a drone with a stabilised camera! Who would ever do that for a ‘real accident’? What you see here is an AI-generated video with neatly executed camera movements done with the help of some video generation software/model.
Cementing this claim further is the fact that the clip doesn’t show airborne dust particles or smoke from the tyres when the truck drags the car along the tarmac. Even after it stops, no tyre marks or burnt rubber are seen on the road. Impossible considering the amount of action that happened here! If this were real, we would have seen dust and tyre smoke while the vehicles were in motion, and the road developing noticeable tyre marks.
Based on the above observations, we think that the video here is AI-generated. However, the person who made it seems to have put in maximum effort to make it as convincing as possible. The Baleno’s number plate reads ‘ KA 01 MS 0423’, which belongs to an actual Baleno! The text on the video claims it to be from Nargund, Karnataka. You wouldn’t, however, find any more details or news reports of this accident anywhere. Now you know exactly why!
AI-based video generation has been rapidly evolving in the past few years. We’ve seen more advanced AI video generation models roll out, taking realism to new heights. Accuracy, consistency, movements, and other critical aspects have improved so much that it has become extremely difficult to distinguish between real and generated videos.
It’s just been days since a video showing a Maharashtra man being attacked by a tiger went viral. This again was AI-generated! Another recent example is the six-second clip of a drunk man feeding liquor to a tiger. It was generated to such realism that many got instantly convinced and believed that someone had actually fed a tiger alcohol!
Even in this case, except for the details mentioned above, almost everything feels very real. As scary as it sounds, it is just a matter of time before we see ‘tyre trails’ being added to the road and ‘dust in the air’!