Man accused of dangerous driving for sleeping in self-driving, speeding Tesla

&gt; “They are not self-driving systems,” said Supt. Gary Graham of Alberta RCMP Traffic Services.<p>&gt; “These technologies assist drivers, but do not replace them,” said the statement from the federal institution responsible for transportation policies and programs ...<p>&gt; Tesla’s website states, “All new Tesla cars come standard with advanced hardware capable of providing Autopilot features today, and full self-driving capabilities in the future.”<p>... full self-driving capabilities in the FUTURE ...<p>So it is a DISHONEST marketing issue that creates a wrong perception in the consumer, and that&#x27;s what the government should address.<p>Create regulation that do not allow such vehicles to be marketed as &quot;self-driving&quot;. Create some kind of certification to earn the right to advertise a vehicle as &quot;self-driving&quot;. And define and standardize better labels for the current technologies used, and publicize it well.

I find it a little concerning that the car is allowed to drive in autopilot with the seats reclined. I thought there were warnings for taking your hands off the steering wheel? I suppose they can be ignored. But full recline is a bit OTT.

<i>&quot;Witnesses claim the man behind the wheel and his passenger were asleep with their seats fully reclined, as their Tesla travelled up to 150 km&#x2F;h on the freeway near Ponoka...&quot;</i><p>Given this and the man&#x27;s other past incidents, the Tesla was only a minor contributing factor in the guy&#x27;s global stupidity and danger that he inflicts on the world daily?<p>Edit: Btw, what would be the end accident scenario here? Presuming that the car wouldn&#x27;t hit any other car on the road, would it lose control on a curve that was too tight for the speed, or fail at the end of the freeway or something? Would it alarm and then come to a gradual stop? Not a Tesla owner here.

&gt; Provincial motor vehicle acts don’t address self-driving vehicles<p>Right now, in Canada, we have to meet certain criteria and pass multiple tests to get our drivers license without which we cannot legally drive on public roads.<p>Until there is some kind of similar certification for self driving systems I don&#x27;t understand why there would be any legal difference between doing this in a Tesla Model S and doing it in a &#x27;94 Miata.

The last time this hit HN the article was a bit more informative.<p>Two people in the car with both front seats reclined, “appearing to be asleep.”<p>The asleep part is almost certainly sensational drivel. This is a driver with a history of reckless driving who was screwing around with his friend.<p>But because he was screwing around in a <i>Tesla</i> it is therefore newsworthy.<p>The seats were reclined, but there is no evidence that the driver and passenger were both asleep. They “appeared asleep” because the seats were reclined.<p>This was undoubtably a stupid prank. I’ll be glad for the day when kids can’t pull stupid pranks in their cars. The trade-off is we’re unlikely to truly “own” our own cars at that time, they will operate as essentially private taxis.

Tesla sells an upgrade literally named “Full Self-Driving Capability”. The owner&#x2F;driver is <i>clearly</i> liable but a strong argument could be made that Tesla should not be allowed to name things the way they do.

x (40?) years from now:<p>12-car accident triggered by manual mode<p>defense attorneys stated a poor decision due to fatigue, while prosecutors provided evidence that the driver had taken a 25-minute power nap, woke up and performed well in a class she was taking, and then proceeded to override the autonomous vehicle system in a manner which showed specific and malicious intent to cause the accident.

One solution is to put a camera inside to monitor the driver behaviour. Mazda is already selling cars with this technology.

I’m a huge fan of Elon Musk so take this with a grain of salt, but the company has totally misled and overhyped the self driving feature. It’s almost like a wink and a nod, giving people a false perception, and that’s wrong.

Curious: Why would the Tesla be speeding, since it was in “autopilot” mode? Wouldn’t it know about the speed limits? Or dis the driver set on cruise control first?