Drunk But Not Driving

robel

Just speaking to a mate who lives in LA and who was involved in a crash the other day, where he was in traffic and got hit from behind by another car. It turns out that the driver behind was test driving a Tesla and she had put it in auto pilot which you should only really do on the motorway/highway and not in town/traffic.

They pulled over and the Tesla driver refused to get out the car and hand over her insurance details, claiming she wasnt driving and blaming the car, so my mate called the police who threatened to arrest her if she didnt comply. Eventually she did.

Tesla called him to chat about the collision and damage and said this happens all the time....

He then told me about this…..

"The California Highway Patrol arrested a driver who officers suspect was drunk and asleep at the wheel of his Tesla Model S while it cruised down Highway 101 in autopilot mode.

Around 3:37 a.m. Friday, a CHP officer spotted a gray Tesla driving at 70 miles an hour on Highway 101 near Redwood City, Palo Alto Online reported, quoting a CHP spokesman. After noticing that the driver appeared to be asleep, officers closed down traffic on the highway and slowed the Tesla by pulling in front of it and slowing down.

The driver eventually awoke after multiple CHP patrol vehicles pulled near the car with flashing lights and sirens, whereupon he failed a field-sobriety test. The CHP suspects Tesla’s autopilot mode was controlling the car at the time but won’t be sure until an investigation is completed.

“It’s great that we have this technology; however, we need to remind people that … even though this technology is available, they need to make sure they know they are responsible for maintaining control of the vehicle,” CHP spokesman Art Montiel said.

In August, a 37-year-old Monterey man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after his Tesla crashed into a San Jose fire truck. And in January, another driver was arrested on the same charge after passing out in his Tesla while it drove in autopilot mode across the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.

Also on Friday, Tesla said in a tweet that its cars have logged more than 1 billion miles in autopilot mode. Tesla’s web site says that its self-driving technology operates at a “safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver” but the company also instructs drivers to keep their hands on the wheel at all times in autopilot mode."

http://fortune.com

x3j3UKN

Not clicking the link...

Greg Hook

Why?

rousetafarian

The link is fine

DemonAV

In no way am I interested in what happened on the highways of LA and doubly so when there's a link of dubious origin.

IronGiant

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IronGiant

I think I'll pass, I get enough crap from UK sites.

nvingo

Test driving?
If Tesla's autopilot mode can't stop for a car in front which many conventional cars with auto-cruise and auto-brake can, I wouldn't be choosing the Tesla.

mjn

Until i can be legally drunk and asleep (like on a train/tube/bus/taxi) and not be held accountable for a crash, i’ve no interest whatsoever in self driving / autonomous cars.

If i have to sit there, hands on the wheel, sober, awake, paying attention.....i might as well be bloody driving the thing myself. I couldn’t think of anything more boring than sitting there pretending to be driving.

Desmo

Tesla's autopilot works just like every other active cruise control on the market.

What NONE of them 100% do is stop for already stationary traffic. They sometimes do but they're not supposed to by design otherwise you'd be stopping for every stationary object in view which would be lots of different objects. They're designed to spot the difference in speed of a slowing object and counteract that. The systems ARE getting better but it's not totally there right now.