Woman is filmed ‘asleep’ at the wheel of her Tesla for 15 minutes on California highway
- California motorists horrified as Tesla driver appears to be asleep at the wheel
- Female motorist is wearing sunglasses and appears unconscious in video
- It is not the first time a Tesla driver has been filmed asleep at the wheel, abusing the car’s autopilot system
Horrifying video footage has captured the moment a Tesla driver is filmed asleep at the wheel on a California highway.
The female motorist can be seen wearing a pink shirt and sunglasses while her body appears limp and unconscious at the wheel.
Tesla’s autopilot system is able to assist drivers but it does not make the vehicle totally autonomous, the company’s website states.
The incident was captured by a fellow motorist who asked ‘are you nuts?’
Users are required to keep their hands on the wheel to maintain control.
The sleepy driver was caught on video by a fellow motorist at around 4pm on the 15 Freeway near Temecula.
The person filming is said to have followed the vehicle for 15 minutes, honking and trying to get the driver’s attention, reports local station KTLA 5.
She then called 911 to report the incident.
A voice in the video is heard saying: ‘Look at how dangerous that is. You guys I’m sorry that is too damn dangerous.
‘Sleeping and this car is driving you. Are you nuts?’
It is not the first time a Tesla driver has been caught sleeping at the wheel and abusing the vehicle’s autopilot system.
In 2019, a man in sunglasses driving a white Tesla was filmed unconscious as the car, also in California.
It comes after Tesla’s new self-driving feature was slammed by even its lawyers owners who said it made them ‘nervous.’
In December Tesla gave their new Enhanced Autopilot safety assist feature to owners to trial for 30 days for free before being given the option to purchase it for $5100.
The feature was made available for the Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X owners.
Enhanced Autopilot provides automatic lane changing assist, automatic parking and the ability to summon the car to your location.
‘None of the “functions” really worked well,’ wrote one person in the Facebook group Tesla Owners Australia.
‘Rather than make life easier, they made me nervous, and from my experience were dangerous.’
Tesla also recently came under fire after it emerged a 2016 promotional video misled viewers about the capabilities of its self-driving technology.
A testimony from a senior engineer at the firm said the video falsely suggested the car was able to stop at a red light and accelerate at a green light.
The video, which remains archived on Tesla’s website, was released in October 2016 and promoted on Twitter by Chief Executive Elon Musk as evidence that ‘Tesla drives itself.’
But the Model X was not driving itself with technology Tesla had deployed, Ashok Elluswamy, director of Autopilot software at Tesla, said in the transcript of a July deposition taken as evidence in a lawsuit against Tesla for a 2018 fatal crash involving a former Apple engineer.
