Canadian police have charged a man in his 20s with speeding and dangerous driving after he was found asleep behind the wheel of a Tesla on the highway.

The incident occurred on July 9 in the Canadian province of Alberta.

Police responded to a tip from the public about a Tesla driving erratically on the highway.

– The car was apparently traveling autonomously at a speed of 140 kilometers per hour and the backs of the front seats were tilted completely backwards. The two people in the car appeared to be sleeping, Alberta police wrote in a report. Press release THURSDAY.

– After the police turned on the vehicle’s blue lights, the Tesla automatically began to accelerate. Police took radar monitoring of the vehicle, which confirmed that it had accelerated to exactly 150 kilometers per hour, the statement read.

The general speed limit on Alberta highways is between 100 and 110 kilometers per hour.

– Non-autonomous systems

Alberta police are now warning against so-called autonomous cars.

– Although new car manufacturers have built-in safety mechanisms to prevent drivers from abusing new safety systems in cars, these systems are just that – an additional safety system, police inspector said Gary Graham of the Alberta Police (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in a statement.

– These are not stand-alone systems. That still comes with the responsibility of actually driving the car, says Graham.

– I am speechless

Police who discovered the self-driving car, which was a 2019 Tesla Model S, say they are speechless.

– No one looked out the windshield to see where the car was going, police officer Darrin Turnbull told CBS News.

– I have been in the police for 23 years, mainly in the traffic department. I am speechless. I’ve never seen anything like this, but of course this technology wasn’t available before, he says.

The trial begins in December.

Automatic pilot

Tesla is the company that has been furthest along in deploying self-driving technology in its cars, and it calls itself its system Autopilot.

As long as the car is on the highway, the car itself can both self-control and adjust its speed, and even change lanes, but in recent years several mechanisms have been integrated so that the driver must actively tell the car to stay on course. hand on the steering wheel.

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