Man becomes instant meme after crashing into police while testing driverless car he developed himself

Demonstrating how a driverless car works almost landed this lad in a lot of trouble.

Muhammad Aalijah was riding shotgun while Ehsan Zafar was operating the motor that isn't supposed to need a human behind the wheel of it.

However, footage of their test-drive which has since gone viral shows why putting your trust in this sort of technology can backfire - as it ended up careering straight into a police car.

Video of Aalijah taking the autonomous vehicle for a spin has been circulating on social media, with people joking that the short clip has 'the potential to become the next international meme'.

Although it's probably not the goal that his pal who created it had in mind, I suppose it's still a claim to fame of sorts.

Aalijah, a journalist, shared the clip of him sitting in the front passenger seat of the moving vehicle as it travelled down a road in Islamabad, Pakistan, but there was an empty space beside him.

It shows the steering wheel spinning from left to right as they make their way along the street, while he explains what features the car boasts.

Zafar - who has been described as a computer engineering student and technology enthusiast by local media - was reportedly controlling the car remotely via the internet at the time.

But during the demo, the self-driving motor suddenly began veering sharply to the left - which, unfortunately, sent it right into the path of a parked police van.

Despite Aalijah's best efforts to bring the car to a stop by frantically grabbing the handbrake, it smashed straight into the coppers who were sat on the roadside.

The comical clip has put a smile on the face of a lot of social media users, who seem to think that the incident is really quite hilarious.

In a post on X, one person said: "Funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time."

Another laughed: "This moment needs to be in GTA 6."

A third joked: "No driver, no charge?"

And a fourth chimed in saying: "Straight out of a comedy show."

Since becoming a viral star after crashing into a police car, Aalijah has offered some more context on the situation.

Speaking to Pakistani news outlet Dawn, the reporter explained that he had been asked to assess the performance of the driverless car by Zafar.

"Everything was fine until a technical fault occurred due to an internet disruption, causing the car to go out of control and crash into a police vehicle," he said.

According to Aalijah, the car was being operated remotely and a sudden loss of internet connection resulted in the crash.

When sharing the footage online, he insisted he did not intend to 'defame or target' Zafar, but instead thought it provided some insight into the dangers of this sort of technology.

"The sole purpose was to raise awareness and urge people to remain cautious until any new experiment or technology has been thoroughly tested, proven safe and established as a complete success," he said.

"This was a message of caution, not an attempt to discredit anyone.

"The vehicle was being operated through satellite and internet connections, but during external control, it went out of control as soon as the internet connection was disconnected and collided with a police vehicle.

"If the same situation had occurred on a busy road, the consequences could have been extremely dangerous, even fatal.

"This video is not criticism; it is a responsible effort to raise awareness and issue a warning - by all means, experiment, but ensure safety first."

Zafar has reportedly been working on his self-driving model since 2018.

Police in Islamabad are believed to have let the lads off in wake of the incident when they explained themselves, as cops considered it to be a 'human mistake' rather than deliberate.