Tesla's driver fell asleep on the German highway, driving on autopilot for 15 minutes.
CTOnews.com, January 2, 2022, December 29, 2022, there was an incident involving the autopilot of Tesla's vehicle on the highway in Germany.
It is reported that at that time, Bamberg traffic police were driving a patrol car on the A70 highway and noticed that a 45-year-old male driver, Tesla, activated the autopilot system while driving from Bamberg to Bayreuth, but the driver fell asleep. At around 12:00, the patrolling police tried to exercise traffic control on the driver, but the driver did not respond to the stop signal and the repeated sirens of the patrol car.
Police officers noted that from the Viet-Trenstadt intersection to the Bamberg-Hafen intersection, the car kept the same distance as the patrol car in front of it, driving at a uniform speed of 110 kilometers per hour.
After careful examination, the police found that the driver Tesla leaned against the sloping seat with his eyes closed and his hands were not on the steering wheel. This confirmed their speculation that he activated the autopilot system and fell asleep. The patrol car continued to escort Tesla for about 15 minutes, when the man finally woke up and followed the instructions of the police.
After he got off the bus, the driver showed a "typical drug abnormality" in the traffic inspection. In addition, the police found a so-called "steering wheel weight" in the foot space of the main driver of the vehicle, which is used to deceive Tesla's safety system into "thinking" that the driver's hand is on the steering wheel, so the driver can turn on the autopilot system all the time while asleep.
There is no doubt that the "steering wheel weight" is a very dangerous accessory, because at present, the autopilot systems of all vehicles are not yet fully autopilot, and drivers must always be vigilant and use the above devices to deceive the autopilot system. It's likely to cause a crash.
CTOnews.com learned that the Bamberg Procuratorate conducted a preliminary investigation into the Tesla driver because he was suspected of endangering road traffic and was a criminal offence in Germany. He is no longer allowed to drive until the court decides.
