A Tesla Owner Was Charged By The Police For Sleeping While Driving

Tesla has always been pretty careful when marketing its Autopilot feature, which they have insisted in the past does not turn their vehicles into self-driving cars, even though for the most part it does have certain autonomous capabilities. However, it has not stopped Tesla owners from treating it as such.

So much so that over in Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have actually charged a Tesla owner who was apparently driving down Highway 2 near Ponoka, a town in Alberta, at over 140kmph while both the front seats of the car were apparently completely reclined, with the driver and the passenger fast asleep.

When police encountered the 2019 Model S and turned on their emergency lights, the car apparently sped up to 150kmph before it eventually stopped. Police later charged the 20-year old driver with speeding, but those charges were later upgraded to dangerous driving and he now has to appear in court this December.

That being said, we have to wonder how the driver pulled this off. This is because Autopilot only works when the driver’s hands are on the wheel. When the car detects that their hands are off the wheel, they will issue a series of warnings before disengaging it, so we’re not sure how the driver managed to sleep while Autopilot was engaged.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Transportation
Tags: Electric Cars, Legal, Self-Driving Cars, Tesla