Tesla Driver Caught Sleeping At The Wheel

Drivers in California were shocked to see a man who appeared to be sleeping at the wheel of a Tesla in rush hour traffic on Friday, while the vehicle was on cruise control.

In footage shared by another driver, you can see the car travelling steadily down the freeway with the driver appearing to be mid-nap, with his head turned to the window.

Tesla's autopilot technology keeps the car travelling at a safe distance from surrounding traffic, and adjusts its speed based on predictions of other vehicles' behaviour. But obviously, as with all cruise control and autopilot functions, the driver still needs to be able to take control if anything happens. In other words, they need to... you know, be awake.

The video appeared on the subreddit IdiotsInCars, posted by user MiloWee with the caption: "Couldn't believe it.. asleep in heavy Friday rush hour traffic in the Bay Area."

One guy asked the original poster: "Would nobody honk to wake him up?", to which he replied "We did, several times. It worked, but he fell back asleep."

They replied: "Honestly seems like it would have been a prank. I've seen a few videos online with Tesla drivers doing that."

Another said: "He has sunglasses on, could be perfectly safe with hands on the bottom of the wheel and eyes open for a we know. But at the same time I've seen way too many of these for them all to be pranks so you know there really are idiots out there that actually sleep or aren't paying attention."

But according to other users, it's starting to become the norm for drivers of Teslas to be arrested for falling asleep though.

Reddit/MiloWee

Someone responded: "Bay Area resident here. Someone getting arrested for this is in the news like every other day now. It happens so often the cops now know they have to get in front of the car and slow to a stop themselves in order to make the car do so as well."

Another person had a more hands on approach to getting his attention, saying: "Best way to wake him would be to give the car a bump, minimal damage. I cant imagine any one trying to argue with that especially if horns blowing hadn't worked."

Well, the jury is out on whether it's real or not, but it's still not a good idea to cause drama in rush hour traffic.

Topics: US News

Amelia Ward

Amelia is a journalist at LADbible. After studying journalism at Liverpool John Moores and Salford Uni (don't ask), she went into PR and then the world of music. After a few years working on festivals and events, she went back to her roots. In her spare time, Amelia likes music, Liverpool FC, and spending good, quality time with her cat, Paul. You can contact Amelia at [email protected].

@ameliasward