A Tesla driver in Norway decided to get behind the wheel of his Model S while intoxicated and visibly fell asleep in the course of the drive while Autopilot was activated.
The motive force-assist system managed to soundly bring the electrical vehicle to a stop.
The incident happened in Norway’s eastern district on Friday, July 30.
Motorists passing a Tesla Model S on the road realized that the driving force was seemingly unconscious on the wheel of the electrical vehicle.
They followed the driving force and filmed him driving on the road together with his head down for over a minute.
Eventually, the Tesla Model S got here to a stop by itself and the motorists attempted to get up the driving force who was still seemingly unconscious:
Eventually, the police arrived on the scene and determined that the driving force, a 24-year-old man, was drunk.
In a public statement, the police said that the driving force denied that he was driving:
“At 0540; a Tesla stops within the tunnel. It seems to be a person 24 years old who has fallen asleep behind the wheel. He can also be drunk, but stubbornly denies driving. Although there may be a video of him from the automotive … Needed samples have been taken.”
Up to now, drunk drivers using Tesla Autopilot have used the driver-assist system as an excuse to avoid charges of “driving under the influence” by claiming that the system was driving and never them.
Nevertheless, Tesla Autopilot just isn’t a self-driving system but relatively a driver-assist system and the driving force is at all times answerable for the vehicle and wishes to remain alert and be able to take control in any respect times.
When activating the Autopilot features, Tesla reminds drivers that they’re answerable for the vehicle they usually should be able to take control in any respect times.
As a fail-safe for people falling asleep, the system recurrently sends out alerts to carry the steering wheel if it doesn’t detect torque being applied to the wheel.
If those alerts are repeatedly ignored, Autopilot will eventually decelerate the automotive and make it come to a stop on the side of the road.
On this case, it looks just like the motorists filming the incident on the vehicle’s right side prevented it from pulling on the side, however it still got here to a stop.
The police reported that they confiscated the Tesla driver’s driving license.