Falling asleep at the wheel of a car on the highway is life-threatening.
A 20-year-old Canadian survived it unscathed, but now has to answer to the police.
Because he was driving his car at a speed of 140 kilometers per hour on the highway, investigations have been initiated against a 20-year-old driver in Canada.
Only 110 km / h were allowed on this route.
But that wasn't his only offense - he slept while driving on the motorway.
The man must now answer for dangerous driving, said the law enforcement authorities on Thursday (local time).
The car was reportedly near the city of Ponoka in the province of Alberta on a stretch of highway.
Both front seats were completely in the reclining position and the people on them were apparently sleeping.
Asleep on the motorway: for this reason, nothing happened to the occupants
According to the Canadian public broadcaster CBC, it was a Tesla electric car that was on autopilot.
In autopilot mode, Tesla vehicles can independently stay in lane on a road, accelerate and brake.
However, the autopilot requires “active monitoring by the driver”, as Tesla makes clear on its website.
The president of a Tesla owners association in Canada told CBC that there were videos circulating on the Internet showing how Tesla security systems could be hacked and tricked.
+
Tesla's cars have an autopilot mode - but the driver still has to keep an eye on the road.
© picture alliance / Sven Hoppe / dpa
Also read
: Electric cars: All information about range, costs, subsidies, model differences.
20-year-old sleeps in the car: the police are speechless
Darrin Turnbull of the local police said on CBC the incident left him "
speechless
".
“Nobody looked out of the windshield to see where the car was going.” During his two decades of career, he had never come across anything like this - “
but of course the technology didn't exist yet,
” added the official with a view to self-driving cars .
There was a similar incident in England a few years ago where a Tesla driver turned on the autopilot and made himself comfortable in the passenger seat.
He too had to answer in court for dangerous driving.
He was
banned from driving for 18 months
and also had to
do community hours
and a
fine of 1
.
Pay
800 pounds
.
It is still unclear what punishment the 20-year-old Canadian will face.
(afp / ec) * tz.de is part of the nationwide Ippen digital editorial network.
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