German police chase suspected runaway Tesla on the highway
Image credits: Daily Mail
Recently, the traffic police found a suspicious Tesla on the A70 freeway in Bavaria, Germany, and when they stopped the vehicle, they found the driver sleeping inside. The police also found a device that is suspected to disable the steering wheel monitoring in the car. The incident has sparked a debate about the safety of Tesla's Autopilot feature.
According to the local police description, the highway patrol found a Tesla driver in a "coma" state, the Tesla driver leaned back in his seat, eyes closed, hands off the steering wheel, this state makes the police have to suspect that the driver will be in full control of the vehicle to the driver assistance system and The police had to suspect that the driver had handed over control of the vehicle to the driver assistance system and had fallen asleep "at ease". The vehicle was traveling at a steady 70mph, and to avoid danger, the police made several attempts to wake the driver with the horn and other signals during this time, but it took the driver about 15 minutes to wake up and pull over.
But the police found a 'steering wheel weight', a device that mimics the pressure of hands on the wheel, in the footwell. It is worth mentioning that the driver was also judged in a subsequent drug test to have "exhibited typical drug abnormalities during the examination", which was one of the causes of the driver's drowsiness. Tesla Autopilot is currently the subject of much debate in the community, with many pro- and anti-Autopilot advocates engaging in heated debates. Some claim that the system is inherently unsafe because it can be tricked by external devices, as in this case; but others say that if this were not in a Tesla, but in another vehicle without driver assistance, it could lead to a more serious crash or even significant loss of life and property after the driver falls asleep.
