What happens when you fall asleep in a Tesla Model S with autopilot on? You look like a dangerous drool-bucket in front of the world in an embarrassing viral GIF. You apparently also don’t crash, thank goodness.
That’s what happened to this sleepy soul, recently caught on camera snoozing at the wheel -- make that hands off of the wheel. The driver, thankfully seatbelted in, was so knocked out, he was slumped down in the blue Tesla’s driver seat with his bearded head tilted back, the sun shining bright on his face like a wake-up call.
A clever someone going by the username isevenx, who claims to be a “Tesla investor and future Model 3 owner,” posted the video evidence in a Tesla Motors subreddit in wonderfully shareable GIF form. The GIF reportedly first appeared on Imgur last Monday.
Related: Watch This Google Self-Driving Car Very Slowly Crash Into a Bus
The sleepyhead’s nagging “hold steering wheel alarm” was likely on and beeping away -- and likely being ignored. If the snoozer’s hands were off of the steering wheel for long enough, the luxury ride would have slowed itself down, clicked the flashing hazard lights on and, finally, come to a complete stop. Yup, right there in the middle of the road. (Check out this video of a Tesla doing just that by the dark of night.)
We have to admit, we’re skeptical of this catchy clip. With criticism of self-driving cars swirling, our hunch is that it’s a staged video made in the hopes of driving the argument that autonomous vehicles are safe to get behind the wheel of, even when you’re asleep.
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