Photo: VG
If you ever wondered what happens when a driver fails to take control of a Tesla vehicle on Autopilot if it disengages, VG released a video that shows that. The Norwegian website presented a Model S driver on the left lane at about 100 kph (62 mph), while wholly passed out. When his car enters a tunnel, it turns emergency lights on and just stops.
The incident – miraculously with no one injured – happened on July 30 at about 6:30 AM on the E6, a 3,088 km road that starts in Trelleborg, Sweden, and ends in Kirkenes, Norway. When a driver realized the Tesla Model S driver was unconscious inside the vehicle, they were close to Vinterbro, a village 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) south of Oslo.
From the time another driver realized that until the car stopped, it had ran for about 10 km (6 miles). The person that recorded the video tried to warn the Tesla driver multiple times (probably honking the horn numerous times), but it did not work. The car only stopped – by itself – inside the Nøstvet tunnel. Not even that made the driver wake up.
The East Amer police arrived at the scene five minutes later and finally managed to wake him up. The 24-year-old driver was drunk but denied that he was driving the car. Ironically, that is true: Autopilot was. Yet, Tesla has a disclaimer that exempts the company from responsibility in such cases and states the driver always has to be in control when Autopilot is activated.
The driver will be indicted for negligent driving and driving under the influence of alcohol. The police spokesman Behreng Mirzaei said it was a dire situation and that he had never seen anything similar in Norway.
This new episode just reinforces something Consumer Reports has already warned about: testing autonomous tech with untrained drivers on public roads “without adequate driver support can – and will – end in fatalities.” Thankfully, it was not the case here, but it could easily have been when a vehicle drives by itself at 100 km/h with no one taking responsibility for that.
From the time another driver realized that until the car stopped, it had ran for about 10 km (6 miles). The person that recorded the video tried to warn the Tesla driver multiple times (probably honking the horn numerous times), but it did not work. The car only stopped – by itself – inside the Nøstvet tunnel. Not even that made the driver wake up.
The East Amer police arrived at the scene five minutes later and finally managed to wake him up. The 24-year-old driver was drunk but denied that he was driving the car. Ironically, that is true: Autopilot was. Yet, Tesla has a disclaimer that exempts the company from responsibility in such cases and states the driver always has to be in control when Autopilot is activated.
Nøstvettunnelen er stengt mens vi venter på berging. Sak opprettes og førerkort tas midlertidig i beslag.
— Politiet i Øst (@politietost) July 30, 2021
The driver will be indicted for negligent driving and driving under the influence of alcohol. The police spokesman Behreng Mirzaei said it was a dire situation and that he had never seen anything similar in Norway.
This new episode just reinforces something Consumer Reports has already warned about: testing autonomous tech with untrained drivers on public roads “without adequate driver support can – and will – end in fatalities.” Thankfully, it was not the case here, but it could easily have been when a vehicle drives by itself at 100 km/h with no one taking responsibility for that.
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