Device that Tricks Tesla’s Autopilot Deemed Unsafe by the NHTSA

In a statement to The Verge, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Heidi King warns drivers not to resort to this dangerous “hack” when driving any of the Tesla cars. The Autopilot function doesn’t mean that the car can drive independently, hence the repeated warnings from the system to keep the hands on the wheel.

Apparently, there’s a market for people who want to bypass this safety measure and get the system to stop issuing signals and ultimately switch off Autopilot. That’s the market that producers for Autopilot Buddy tapped into, even if that meant putting their customers’ life at risk.

“A product intended to circumvent motor vehicle safety and driver attentiveness is unacceptable,” King explains. “By preventing the safety system from warning the driver to return hands to the wheel, this product disables an important safeguard, and could put customers and other road users at risk.”

The Buddy is a piece of magnetic plastic that you can put on the wheel to apply pressure. It’s enough to trick the Autopilot system into thinking your hands are on the wheel, which means you can literally do anything else but that. In light of recent accidents involving Tesla vehicles on Autopilot and with the driver not paying attention to the road, the last thing you should do is ignore the warnings, the Administration says.

The Verge tried to contact the makers of this device for comment but got no response. The Buddy is made in the U.S. but it’s not available for sale here, and comes with a long list of disclaimers, including how it should only be used on a closed track. Probably not a single one of them discouraged foolhardy drivers from buying it.