Published 16:51 IST, September 11th 2019
Massachusetts: Man asleep at wheel as Tesla speeds at 90 kmph
Dakota Randall made a video that shows a man and his co-passenger asleep atop a Tesla car which was moving at a speed of 90-95 kmph in the Interstate 90.
A Massachusetts man made a video that shows the driver sleeping in a Tesla car. Dakota Randall, who filmed the video, told a global news portal that he found a Tesla with its driver and a passenger both asleep in the afternoon hours of September 8 while he was driving on Interstate 90. He said when he glanced past over the car realizing something is not right, he found out that the driver was asleep with his head between his legs and the co-passenger lying against her back. The video was shot on an interstate highway in Newton, Massachusetts.
Tried to alert the driver by honking: Randall
Randall added that the car was traveling at a speed of 90-95 kilometres per hour and he tried to alert the driver of the car by honking. There was no response at all from the driver nor the co-passenger. According to Randall, he followed the Tesla for about 45 seconds to a minute in between which he managed to film a video of the sleeping driver. After making the video he took over the Tesla car leaving the driver and co-passenger behind. Later he shared the video on Twitter, where it has been seen more than 6 lakh times and gathered various surprising comments and remarks. “Some guy literally asleep at the wheel on the Mass Pike (great place for it),” he tweeted.
Tesla Spokesperson: Such videos appear to be pranks or hoaxes
He did not inform the police and later when the police called up Randall he was unable to provide identifying information about the vehicle or driver. A spokesperson of Tesla said a lot of these videos appear to be dangerous pranks or hoaxes. The driver monitoring system installed in the car repeatedly reminds drivers to remain engaged and prohibits the use of autopilot when warnings are ignored.Mr. Randall said the video posted by him was not hoax. He said maybe the people inside the car were faking being asleep but he was skeptical.
Updated 18:00 IST, September 11th 2019