A British driver has pled guilty to dangerous driving after a fellow driver took video of him sleeping in the passenger seat, while his Tesla S 60 drove on its own with Autopilot, according to BBC News (via Jalopnik).

Bhavesh Patel was spotted by a fellow driver sleeping in the passenger seat while his Autopilot was engaged on the M1 near Hemel Hempstead on May 21st, 2017. The Hertfordshire Police note that the car was set to drive at 40 MPH, and that Patel had left the steering wheel and controls unattended, and that there was heavy traffic on the road at the time of the incident.

Patel has pled guilty to the offense, and has been banned from driving for 18 months, and will be required to pay a £1,800 fine, carry out 10 days rehabilitation, and to perform 100 hours of community service. Hertfordshire Police officers testified at his court hearing that he said that what he did was “silly,” but pointed to his vehicle’s “amazing” features when he was interviewed. He reportedly had owned the car for five months at the time of the incident.

The Hertfordshire Police told the BBC News that Patel was “grossly irresponsible,” and that his actions could have easily resulted in his own death or that of other drivers. A representative from Tesla said during his court hearing that the feature isn’t meant to supplant a driver, and has defended the feature in the past.

While Elon Musk has said that Tesla vehicles will have all the hardware necessary to drive autonomously, the company’s Autopilot feature still has a way to go before it’s ready to be used as such. The feature is designed to assist a driver, and it’s not foolproof: there have been several high-profile incidents in which drivers have engaged Autopilot and crashed. Tesla isn’t alone here — a self-driving Uber killed a pedestrian in March, prompting other companies such as Toyota and Nvidia to suspend their testing efforts.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/29/17298750/tesla-autopilot-british-driver-charged-driving-sleeping