A Tesla driver in Norway decided to get behind the wheel of his Model S while intoxicated and visibly fell asleep during the drive while Autopilot was activated.
The driver-assist system managed to safely bring the electric vehicle to a stop.
The incident happened in Norway’s eastern district on Friday, July 30th.
Motorists passing a Tesla Model S on the road realized that the driver was seemingly unconscious at the wheel of the electric vehicle.
They followed the driver and filmed him driving on the road with his head down for over a minute.
Eventually, the Tesla Model S came to a stop by itself and the motorists attempted to wake up the driver who was still seemingly unconscious:
Eventually, the police arrived on the scene and determined that the driver, a 24 years-old man, was drunk.
In a public statement, the police said that the driver denied that he was driving:
“At 0540; a Tesla stops in the tunnel. It turns out to be a man 24 years old who has fallen asleep behind the wheel. He is also drunk, but stubbornly denies driving. Although there is a video of him from the car … Necessary samples have been taken.”
In the past, 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 not them.
However, Tesla Autopilot is not a self-driving system but rather a driver-assist system and the driver is always responsible for the vehicle and needs to stay alert and be ready to take control at all times.
When activating the Autopilot features, Tesla reminds drivers that they are responsible for the vehicle and they need to be ready to take control at all times.
As a fail-safe for people falling asleep, the system regularly sends out alerts to hold the steering wheel if it doesn’t detect torque being applied to the wheel.
If those alerts are repeatedly ignored, Autopilot will eventually slow down the car and make it come to a stop on the side of the road.
In this case, it looks like the motorists filming the incident on the vehicle’s right side prevented it from pulling on the side, but it still came to a stop.
The police reported that they confiscated the Tesla driver’s driving license.
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