A motorist in Germany was asleep at the wheel with his Tesla on "autopilot" while police officers chased him for about 15 minutes.
When police near Bamberg tried to stop the driver for a traffic control, he did not react to the officers’ stop signals and repeated hooting. The officers noticed that the Tesla kept the same distance to their patrol car in front at 110kph, that he was leaning in the seat with his eyes closed and his hands were not on the steering wheel.
It confirmed their suspicions that he had left the car to drive in autopilot and fallen asleep.
After about 15 minutes, the man finally woke up and followed the instructions of the police. The officers reported that the 45-year old driver showed drug-typical abnormalities, and in the footwell they found a so-called steering wheel weight - a device attached to the steering wheel to trick the safety function of the vehicle by simulating a hand being at the wheel. The driver lost his license.
It is the latest incident of people sleeping behind the wheel of a Tesla, falsely believing it has fully autonomous driving ability. The Elon Musk-owned company has been criticised for the misleading naming of its Autopilot feature, which is not able to drive the vehicle on its own and still requires the driver to remain alert at all times.
