Tesla warned risks of "total autonomous driving" 1:10
(CNN) -
A 38-year-old Illinois man was taken into custody Sunday after a deputy sheriff apparently found him sleeping behind the wheel of a 2019 Tesla running on autopilot, the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department reported in a press release.
When an attendant pulled up next to the vehicle near the Wisconsin-Illinois border, he saw "that the driver's head was lowered and he was not looking at the road," the statement said.
The deputy sheriff followed the Tesla for about two miles with the squad car's lights and sirens activated before the driver realized he was being asked to stop, the statement said.
"I followed you for about two miles and you were sleeping, you were totally like this in the car," one of the deputies is heard saying in body camera footage released by the sheriff's department.
«I was by your side, I was looking at you and you were doing this, your eyes were closed.
I understand that you have the automatic pilot, but if something happens, you are not able to make that conscious decision to stop cold.
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In the body camera footage, which began after he was pulled over, sheriff's deputies speak over and over to the driver, who repeatedly says he is tired but not asleep.
The man said he was on his way to work at the time of his arrest.
“We had a person call us because they saw you sleeping, they followed you from Illinois to Highway 50,” says a deputy sheriff of a person who called 911 to report the driver, “and then he [the other deputy sheriff ] He got next to you, and you were unconscious, ”the deputy sheriff told the driver.
"I understand the automatic mode, but you still have to be awake and doing things," added the second deputy sheriff.
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Sheriff's deputies fined the driver for inattentive driving and ordered the Tesla removed from the scene, claiming the driver was unable to operate the vehicle.
In their conversation with the driver, officers noted that there were no other significant signs of impairment or medical condition in the incident.
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Deputies also said the operator knew of two previous incidents in which drivers on the interstate called authorities after noticing that the driver was sleeping behind the wheel in February and August 2020. The deputy sheriff said it was the first. time faced with an inattentive driver operating an autonomous vehicle.
The assistants will have to issue a report of the condition of the driver, an investigation to determine if he is fit to operate a vehicle.
"I have to make sure everyone is safe, and for me, that is not being safe," the official said.
The sheriff's department said Tesla forces users to keep their hands on the wheel at all times, even when using the autopilot function.
"The current functions of the autopilot require active supervision of the driver and do not make the vehicle autonomous," says Tesla on its official website.
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