Man falls asleep at the wheel of his Tesla on the highway

Dakota Randall shared a hard-to-believe-but-true video on social media of a driver asleep at the wheel of his moving car with the caption:

Some guy literally asleep at the wheel on the Mass Pike (great place for it). Teslas are sick, I guess?

It’s a well-known fact that Teslas have an Autopilot setting. This vehicle is able to carry out several tasks that are normally left up to the driver. It can regulate the car’s speed in the traffic, pull out in case of danger, change lane, take exits on the highway, pull over. The manufacturer has however made it clear that the driver does need to remain vigilant and watch the road even when the car is in Autopilot.

But it looks like this Tesla driver may have missed that when reading the manual… And unfortunately, this man isn't the only one to have gotten into trouble while cruising on Autopilot.

90km/h on the highway

Dakota Randall, who filmed this worrying scene, said to the American media:

I thought I saw somebody asleep at the wheel, but I wasn’t sure, so I did a double-take. Sure enough there was somebody with his head right between his legs.

This scene that was filmed by the internet user lasts 28 seconds… The Tesla driver and his passenger were fast asleep while the car was cruising down the highway at 90km/h.

To try to wake the unconscious driver up, Dakota Randall said he beeped his horn several times, but nothing seemed to work.

A prank?

A spokesperson for the company reacted underneath the Twitter user’s video who stated:

Many of these videos appear to be dangerous pranks of hoaxes. Our driver-monitoring system repeatedly reminds drivers to remain engaged and prohibits the use of Autopilot when warnings are ignored. […] Tesla owners have driven billions of miles using Autopilot, and data from our quarterly Vehicle Safety Report indicates that drivers using Autopilot experience fewer accidents than those operating without assistance.

Dakota Randall then responded to the company, stating that he doesn’t believe it was a prank:

Maybe the people in the car were faking being asleep, but I’m sceptical.

Watch the video above to see for yourself.