A recent video surfaced that showed yet another driver who was caught sleeping behind the wheel of his Tesla while it was on autopilot. This one was seen going at 75 mph along an interstate in California.
The clip was filmed by someone who was in another car that was pulling up alongside the Tesla.
This is the second time that a driver using Tesla’s Autopilot while sleeping has been caught on video in the last two months.
Seth Blake, who took the video, tweeted: “Dude is straight snoozing going 75mph on the interstate, letting his @Tesla do the work. [sic]”
The driver’s hands are not visible on the wheel so the assumption was that the car was on autopilot. It’s unknown if the driver was later pulled over.
According to Tesla’s website, their vehicles have the “hardware needed for full self-driving capability” and even offer an “Enhanced Autopilot” package for $5,000.
This enhanced autopilot promises to “match speed to traffic conditions, keep within a lane, automatically change lanes without requiring driver input, transition from one freeway to another, and exit the freeway when your destination is near.”
Tesla also claims that the system can even allow the car to “self-park when near a parking spot and be summoned to and from your garage.”
Furthermore, an additional $3,000 also gives you the “Full Self-Driving” package to allow the car to drive itself.
However, these pricey cutting-edge capabilities do not guarantee safety. There are several instances of Tesla cars crashing even with the autopilot engaged.
An Ohio man was killed in 2016 when his Tesla hit a semi-truck while autopilot was engaged.
The National Transportation Safety Board cited Tesla’s “lack of sufficient system controls” as partly to blame.
In response, Tesla put a limit on how long drivers can keep their hands off the steering wheel before a warning beep is activated. Should the driver remain unresponsive, the system will stop the car and turn the hazard lights on.
But this hasn’t solved the issue.
California Highway Patrol troopers spotted a man asleep on the driver’s seat of his Tesla Model S in December 2018 while the car was going at 70 mph.
They had to get in front of the car and start slowing down so that the car would automatically slow down with them, reports Wired.
And in January, the driver of a Tesla Model X was filmed asleep at the wheel as it was on autopilot on a Las Vegas road.
YouTube videos have also come up teaching Tesla drives to wedge an orange or water bottle at the steering wheel in order to bypass the system.