Man seen smiling in backseat of self-driving Tesla is now arrested, California cops say
When California drivers looked over and saw a Tesla driving itself with only a man in the backseat, they were startled.
After receiving multiple reports from concerned drivers on the interstate, the California Highway Patrol said Tuesday officials arrested 25-year-old Param Sharma on suspicion of reckless driving.
Concerned drivers spot Tesla driving itself in California with smiling man in backseat
Sharma was arrested and booked into the Santa Rita Jail on “two counts of reckless driving and disobeying a peace officer,” officials said. The Tesla was towed for evidence.
On Monday, officials received multiple 911 calls about the Tesla Model 3 driving without anyone in the front seats. The drivers said the only person in the car was a smiling man in the back.
“Prior to this arrest, members of the public had captured video of someone resembling Sharma operating his vehicle in the same reckless manner,” officials said. “The CHP’s Oakland Area had cited Sharma on April 27 for similar behavior.”
Teslas have an autopilot function that lets the car “steer, accelerate and brake automatically within its lane under your active supervision,” according to the company’s website.
Sharma told KTVU that riding in the backseat of the Tesla while it is in autopilot isn’t dangerous, and self-driving cars are the present as well as the future.
“I’ve been brake-checked before really hard, and the car stopped,” Sharma told KTVU. “The car came to a complete stop. Elon Musk really knows what he’s doing.”
In April, a Tesla Model S crashed into a tree and burst into flames in Texas, McClatchy News reported. Two people who were in the car died during the crash.
It looked like no one was driving the Tesla when it ran into the tree, Texas police said. However, Tesla founder Musk tweeted at the time of the crash that data logs didn’t show that the vehicle was in autopilot mode.
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