- Swedish man’s Tesla Model X drove itself for 25 miles after he fell asleep at the wheel
- Police alerted after another driver noticed the X was in the overtaking line but not passing anything
- Driver eventually woke up and steered sharply to the right, almost crashing into police car
A Swedish Tesla driver has been convicted of reckless driving after he fell asleep behind the wheel and led police on a 25-mile (40 km) Autopilot chase.
The unnamed delivery driver was heading north east along the E4 highway when he was spotted by another Tesla driver who thought it odd that the Model X was stuck in the passing lane but not passing anything. When the second driver drew alongside he noticed that the man behind the wheel of the X was fast asleep and quickly called the police.
Related: Did Tesla’s Autopilot Recall Updates Go Far Enough? Feds Have Doubts And Are Investigating
By the time cops finally caught up with the 2019 SUV, it had traveled around 16 miles (26 km) since the other driver had raised the alarm, and was now close to Linköping. But it still had plenty of miles left in the battery and, despite the best efforts of the police, the driver couldn’t be roused, Sweden’s Vibilagare reports.
Police tried to usher the car off at one exit, but couldn’t get it to stop, and had to wait until the next exit appeared several more miles down the road. Eventually, the driver woke up, and he must have had such a fright when he did that he jinked the steering wheel to the right, forcing a nearby police car to take evasive action to avoid a collision. The driver then pulled into a gas station bringing the chase to a halt after 25 scary miles.
The man reportedly told police that he hadn’t slept the night before and was stressed because he had to deliver the car. He even tried to claim that he’d had one of his eyes open the whole time, but soon changed his story.
”I’m extremely ashamed, it was because of exhaustion,” he told police during questioning. “I had a Tesla with Autopilot which made me very comfortable.”
Drivers are meant to stay alert when using Autopilot and the system will disengage if they’re not making regular wheel inputs. But those kind of systems that don’t rely on driver face monitoring can be tricked by placing weights on the wheel – though the story doesn’t mention if the driver was using one of those devices.
It also doesn’t say why police didn’t simply drive in front of the car and reduce speed, which would have presumably forced it to slow down. And you just know that Arkansas cops would have PITted that sucker into the scenery seconds after arriving on the scene.
Tesla’s Autopilot hasn’t taken the same flak in Europe that it has in the U.S. where safety regulators are currently looking into last December’s virtual recall of more than 2 million cars. Tesla was supposed to improved Autopilot safeguards to prevent driver misuse but the NHTSA is concerned that the changes don’t go far enough.