About a month ago, a German court ruled that Tesla had to stop referring to its semi-autonomous driving system as 'Autopilot' due to drivers thinking that they can solely rely on the system at speed.
Unsurprisingly, this caused quite an uproar in the Tesla community, but it's stories like this one out of Canada that prove that drivers are being misled by Tesla's controversial term.
Alberta RCMP received a complaint of a car speeding on Hwy 2 near #Ponoka. The car appeared to be self-driving, travelling over 140 km/h with both front seats completely reclined & occupants appeared to be asleep. The driver received a Dangerous Driving charge & summons for court pic.twitter.com/tr0RohJDH1
— RCMP Alberta (@RCMPAlberta) September 17, 2020
Just recently, police pulled a Tesla Model S over in Alberta for travelling at 150km/h in a 100km/h zone. On top of this, both front seats were completely reclined with both occupants appearing to be asleep.
Not only is this extremely dangerous for the occupants of the Model S, but in recent times, we have seen numerous Tesla vehicles on autopilot smash into a variety of stationary obstacles both on the tarmac, and the side of the road.
“The officer was able to obtain radar readings on the vehicle, confirming that it had automatically accelerated up to exactly 150 km/h," the RCMP said. “both front seats [were] completely reclined” and “both occupants [appeared] to be asleep.”
As you'd expect, once the driver was pulled over, police suspended their licence for 24 hours, and after "a short consultation with the Crown," he was charged with dangerous driving with a court date set for December.
Following the incident, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police released a statement surrounding "self-driving cars".
"Although manufacturers of new vehicles have built-in safeguards to prevent drivers from taking advantage of the new safety systems in vehicles, those systems are just that—supplemental safety systems,” RCMP Supt. Gary Graham said.
“They are not self-driving systems, they still come with the responsibility of driving.”