In case you didn’t already know, Tesla comes with an autopilot mode which while it sounds like a self-driving mode, it is really more of an enhanced cruise control feature. In fact Tesla in the past has warned against drivers using autopilot mode as a self-driving mode, but it’s hard to control what their customers do once they’ve purchased it.
Unfortunately for one Tesla owner, a Bhavesh Patel, aged 39, of Alfreton Road, Nottingham, he decided that he would put autopilot to the ultimate test by engaging it and then shifting over into the passenger seat. Unfortunately for Patel he was caught on camera performing that rather dangerous stunt. Granted due to traffic conditions, the car was only moving at 40mph, but it is still rather dangerous.
Man pleads guilty to dangerous driving after switching on his car's autopilot and moving over to the passenger seat while travelling along the M1 near #HemelHempstead: https://t.co/GrKppSLVZT pic.twitter.com/JPYgk9eyDM
— Herts Police (@HertsPolice) April 27, 2018
Patel has since pleaded guilty to dangerous driving. According to PC Kirk Caldicutt, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Road Policing Unit, “What Patel did was grossly irresponsible and could have easily ended in tragedy. He not only endangered his own life but the lives of other innocent people using the motorway on that day.”
As a result of this reckless stunt, Patel has been banned from driving for 18 months, given 100 hours of unpaid work, ordered to carry out 10 days of rehabilitation, and will also have to pay £1,800 in costs to the Crown Prosecution Service.