Hey, who likes riddles? Here’s one! What’s the difference between KITT from Knight Rider’s self-driving system and a Tesla on Autopilot? The answer? Nothing! They’re both fucking fictional when it comes to being fully self-driving and if you sleep in your Autopilot-mode Tesla you’re an idiot endangering everyone around you. Also, only one could be used while David Hass el hoff enjoyed a cheeseburger. With this in mind, this video of a guy sleeping at the wheel of his Tesla Model X should be even more infuriating.


Here, just watch:

This was shot by a reader who’d prefer to remain anonymous, on the road back from Las Vegas. Thanks to the slo-mo video, you can see that this guy in his Model X is quite clearly and lavishly asleep.


I’m not sure how he’s defeated the many warnings that come on if the system doesn’t detect a hand on the steering wheel; perhaps his hand is resting there, or maybe he has one of these terrible things, or maybe just an orange.

No matter how he’s tricking the system into thinking there’s an awake and alert human behind the wheel, it doesn’t really matter. This is deeply and richly stupid.

Of course, Tesla absolutely does not want anyone doing this with Autopilot, under any circumstances. They have very specific safeguards to prevent this kind of dumbassery, and while, sure, a car without autopilot would have likely crashed much sooner, this is still a terrible idea.

Tesla’s Autopilot is, despite what many people seem to believe, not an autonomous driving system. It’s what you would call Level 2 Autonomy at best, which is very, very much not self-driving. Sure, it can sort of drive by itself in very limited circumstances and situations, but it’s really more of a comprehensive driver assist setup, requiring a human—an awake human—to be ready to take over at a moment’s notice.


There’s been a number of Tesla crashes where Autopilot was engaged, and in almost every situation, there’s a person not paying attention to what the car is doing. This is why I personally think Level 2 autonomy is a bad idea—if it’s possible for a moron like this to sleep while the car is driving at highway speeds, that’s a huge problem.

This isn’t rocket science, snoozing Tesla-owning dummy. You car isn’t self-driving. If you’re behind the wheel and the car is in motion, you can’t go to sleep, idiot. Why do we have to tell these people this shit? This should be obvious.


Hopefully, Captain Snoozemoron there didn’t hurt anyone, though I do sort of hope his stupid Falcon Doors got stuck open, and then a flock of seagulls all with intestinal troubles hovers overhead for a bit.

Wake up, idiot.