A driver fell asleep while his Tesla car was on autopilot on a German highway. The police tried to wake him up for 15 minutes. His license was suspended during the investigation.
German police stopped a Tesla driver who fell asleep at the wheel with the autopilot assistance system on.
The car accelerated to nearly 110 km/h on a highway in Bavaria, Germany, while the 45-year-old driver continued to doze off, the newspaper reported. Police spent about 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to wake up the driver by honking and signaling him to stop. Tesla Autopilot does not yet have a stop function at the request of the police.
The Upper Franconia Police Department first suspected the car was on autopilot when it kept a constant distance from a police patrol car traveling at 110 km/h, the newspaper reported.
‘Officers observed the driver of the Tesla slumped back in the seat with his eyes closed and his hands off the steering wheel,’ police told The Times. ‘This raises the suspicion that he let the autopilot take over and fell asleep.’
He eventually awoke and stopped, displaying ‘drug-related symptoms,’ police said.
Police found a ‘steering wheel load,’ a device that simulates the weight of the hands on the wheel, allowing the driver to remove their hands and continue driving. The device overrides Tesla’s security feature.
