Tesla Driver Recorded Asleep, Not-Driving Driving down California's 405 Freeway

The driver appeared to be sleeping while his Tesla cruised at 65 mph on Autopilot.

Sleepy Driving
Virojt ChangyenchamGetty Images
  • A Tesla driver was recorded napping behind the wheel of his Model S while it drove itself an alleged 30 miles down California's 405 freeway.
  • The driver seemingly intentionally hacked the system's fail-safe to allow endless hands-off-the-wheel travel.
  • Tesla's Autopilot feature, remember, is not a fully self-driving system.

    A Tesla driver was filmed asleep at the wheel in a Model S sedan apparently cruising on its own down California's 405 freeway with its Autopilot semi-autonomous feature enabled. The story was picked up—and sensationalized—by the local NBC station, which reports that the Tesla not-driver is alleged to have traveled 30 miles down the 405 while napping.

    Just as when Autopilot first came out and people put videos of themselves climbing out of the driver's seat and into the passenger or rear seats while the car seemingly drove itself, this is monumentally stupid and bad for a variety of reasons. First and most important is this: In spite of its name, Autopilot isn't a full self-driving system. Instead, it encompasses the relatively ordinary (and widely available) pairing of adaptive cruise control and a lane-keeping system that steers the car within lane markers. Sure, Tesla's self-steering function is among the better and more ambitious ones out on the market today. Mostly this is because it's allowed more leeway to steer the car than many of Tesla's competitors allow in their vehicles; for example, Mercedes-Benz has similar technology but deliberately doesn't allow it to function in as many scenarios—or handle turns as sharp—as boundary-pushing Tesla does.

    Either way, Tesla is adamant that drivers using Autopilot in its vehicles must remain present and aware, lest they need to retake control at any moment. In our experience with Autopilot, the need to retake control really can happen at any moment—sometimes, it's because there is a traffic scenario developing ahead that the car's computers simply can't figure out. Other times, Autopilot itself seems to go to sleep, steering the car in odd or unexpected directions. The point is this: Autopilot isn't perfect, Tesla doesn't officially view it as such, and a driver can't simply nod off while using the system. After all, Autopilot cannot read or respond to road signs, read or respond to traffic signals, and more.

    Stupider still, this wasn't some case of a driver, lulled by boredom, falling asleep while the car did all of the work. Tesla's Autopilot system has a fail-safe designed to keep driver inattention at bay, a torque sensor on the steering wheel that, if the wheel isn't touched or handled for a period of time, instigates the driver to retake control and defeats Autopilot. So how did this guy in California sleep for 30 miles, hands off the wheel, you ask? He hacked it. Intentionally. Per the citizen who recorded the incident, there appeared to be something tied to the Tesla's steering wheel. This is a well-known hack for Autopilot (and other self-steering systems), in which a user straps something mildly weighty (a soda can, a beanbag, whatever) to the steering-wheel rim to trick the system into thinking there's a hand on the wheel, thus defeating its hands-on-the-wheel safety net and allowing (theoretically) endless hands-off driving.

    Endless, that is, until the car's cameras and radar sensors lose purchase on the Tesla's surroundings, or that thing tied to the wheel falls off and the car leaves the road and slams into something, or meets any of the other grim outcomes there could be for a rudderless car traveling at highway speeds. Self-driving cars don't yet exist, not in Tesla form, not in any form—and barely in experimental form. So, although it should go without saying: always pay attention while driving, even while using driver-assistance features like Autopilot. Not least because some rightfully concerned citizen will film you and report your license plate number to the police, as happened here.

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