A man appeared to want to test the limits of Tesla’s autopilot feature, and a British court has made an example out of him.
The St Albans Crown Court recently banned Bhavesh Patel, 39, from driving for 18 months for climbing into the passenger seat of his Model S after turning on its semi-autonomous feature while travelling down a highway. Tesla instructs customers to keep their hands on the steering wheel while the autopilot is turned on.
The police, citing witness accounts, said Patel’s Model S was travelling about 65km/h in heavy traffic last year. According to a video taken by a witness, no one was sitting in the driver’s seat, and Patel appeared to have his hands behind his head. Patel was later interviewed by officers at a police station, law enforcement officials said, where he admitted that he knew his actions were “silly” but the car was capable of something “amazing.”
Attendees sit inside a Tesla Model S at the EV Trend Korea exhibition in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday, April 12. Photo: Bloomberg
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He told police he was just the “unlucky one who got caught.”
Patel pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, law enforcement officials said Friday.
