Autopilot Feature On A Drunkard’s Tesla Model S Drove 7 Miles Before Police Stopped The Car

Jyotis - Dec 04, 2018

The Police supposed the driver in a drunken state seemed to be asleep and let his Tesla Model S run at a speed of 112km/h with the Autopilot feature.

A few days ago, Redwood City California Highway Patrol required a Tesla Model S to stop on the road to check because they saw something suspicious in this car. More precisely, they supposed the driver in a drunken state seemed to be asleep and let his car run at a speed of 112km/h with the Autopilot feature.

One of the Model S's variants

The incident took place at 3:37 AM on November 30^th. This is not the first time the Autopilot feature by Tesla has been used in such a situation; however, auto-driving a car at such high speed is another story.

According to the sources received, to stop the Tesla Model S, the officers in California flashed lights and whistled sirens towards this car, but it did not work at all. They quickly judged that the driver might be drunken and run the Autopilot feature. A strategic was given in a blink of an eye: Taking advantages of the car’s characteristics, two police cars surrounded the suspected car and conducted a chase that extended about 7 miles.

Inside a Tesla Model S

The California Highway Patrol revealed that, when just realizing the incident, they were not sure about whether the car was running with the “driver assist” feature or not. As all we know, to use this made-in-Tesla feature, drivers’ hands always put on the steering wheel. Besides, another feature created by Tesla can also change the car’s speed when there is an obstacle in front. It is Traffic Aware Cruise Control.

It’s difficult to determine what kind of feature was activated in the last-Friday incident, but a variety of auto-driving features by Tesla apparently caused some specific troubles for the police when investigating. Tesla’s intentions regarding the production of these features are put under question.

In fact, Elon Musk’s company stated that the Autopilot feature was designed to run on highways, and drivers should still ensure safety for themselves. It’s clear that these warnings don’t gain much attention from some drivers.