Driving Ban for Tesla Driver Who Sat Down in Passenger Seat. It is tempting for many Tesla drivers: getting your hands off the wheel after switching on the auto-pilot function. A man from the British city of Nottingham went a step further: he not only took his hands off the wheel, he also sat down on the passenger seat.
For the record: it is compulsory for all drivers, including those of a Tesla, to keep their hands on the wheel. The 37-year-old ‘driver apparently forgot that line’.
Other road users saw recently how the man from Nottingham changed places while driving, while he drove about 64 km per hour on the highway.
A surprised witness made a video of the special action and shared it on social media. This also got the police out of it. He encouraged the owner of the white Tesla S60.
Stupid Action
The man had to report to the police station. There he admitted that his action was ‘stupid,.’ He would have added that he was just ‘the unlucky one’ who was caught once while trying out Tesla’s ‘fantastic’ auto-pilot function. In other words, his car was able to do something so fantastic, and he could not resist that temptation.
The 37-year-old man has been severely punished for his rash action. He has been given a driving ban for 18 months, has to do 100 hours of volunteer work, must attend a 10-day course and pay a fine of 1800 pounds.
Irresponsible
The police call the action very irresponsible and point out that it could quickly have come to a ‘tragedy.’ “He has put in risk not only his own life but also that of other, innocent people who drove that highway on that day.” The hefty penalty must be a warning to other drivers of self-driving cars.