In Germany, police pursued a Tesla with a sleeping driver

The Bamberg road police patrol (Germany) преследовал a Tesla robo-car with Autopilot engaged, while the driver allegedly slept at the wheel.

According to the officers, they spotted the drone as it headed east on the highway toward Bayreuth. The driver did not respond to police signals and did not stop the vehicle.

The patrol pursued the Tesla for about 15 minutes at a speed of 110 km/h. During this time the robo-car tried to maintain distance from other vehicles.

“Officers found that the driver was reclining on the Tesla’s seat with his eyes closed and hands off the wheel. This raised suspicion that he had activated autopilot and fallen asleep,” said the police press release.

According to law enforcement, after about 15 minutes of pursuit the driver “woke up” and complied with officers’ demands. They found that the man was under the influence of an unidentified substance.

They also found a steering-wheel weight in the robo-car’s cabin.

 “This device is designed to fool the safety systems of robo-cars. It allows bypassing the manufacturers’ requirements to keep hands on the wheel while using autopilot,” the authorities noted.

Police opened an investigation into the Tesla owner on suspicion of creating a hazard to road traffic. The driving licence was suspended for the duration of the inquiry.

Earlier in December 2022, Tesla updated the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software to detect attempts to bypass the hands-on requirement.

In the same month, California authorities barred automakers from selling the driver-assistance technology as fully autonomous.

In August, the American consumer-rights advocate Ralph Nader urged a ban on the FSD system in light of its “dangerous and irresponsible actions.”

Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog AI — all the news from the world of AI!