Asleep Behind The Wheel Of A Tesla Using FSD?

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The video above has been making the rounds on the internet. Supposedly, the incident occurred in Canada and shows a Tesla driving while using Full Self Driving (Supervised) at around 100 km/h on a two-lane road while the driver is soundly asleep behind the wheel. It quickly went viral on social media.

“One thing is clear: Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD), despite its name, is not an autonomous driving system. Even in regions where FSD (Supervised) is now approved (such as the Netherlands, Lithuania, or Estonia), it remains a driver-assistance system classified as SAE Level 2. Responsibility therefore always lies with the person behind the wheel. They must monitor traffic and be prepared to intervene at any time. Why the Tesla continued driving in this incident cannot be determined from the video,” Electrive writes.

“Whether the driver monitoring system failed, was bypassed, or the footage only captures a brief moment remains unclear. What is certain, however, is that the incident once again underscores the limitations of today’s assistance systems. This is precisely why a clear distinction between driver assistance and autonomous driving matters. Modern systems can support drivers in many situations, but they cannot replace them. While today’s technology achieves remarkable feats, sleeping at the wheel remains firmly off the list of recommended driving practices.”

That seems to be a pretty gentle reaction to someone who appears to be sound asleep while driving and using FSD. Some of you will hail the system for working as well as it did; others will be horrified that the car did not detect the driver was asleep. Doesn’t it monitor the driver constantly in order to prevent such irresponsible behavior?

We have no opinion on this video, other that to say it does not appear to be faked and does seem to show a driver oblivious to her surroundings. There are a few things that raise questions, however. For example, the touchscreen in the car appears to be blank. What’s up with that?

Parsing The Comments

Perhaps the most interesting parts of this video are the more than 100 comments it has received. Here is a representative sampling:

1. Unreal — kids in the car, too.
2. Wondering why the driver in the filming car wasn’t blowing their horn to wake up that woman?
3. That’s very interesting, because Tesla is suppose to require open eye contact in order to enable the self driving feature. Can someone tell me how a person could bypass this? How is this allowed to happen?
4. Instead of honking and helping this woman wake up, they take a video and post it all over the internet.
5. Shocking!
6. Why is the screen black? It should show the FSD screen.
7. Soon, it is going to be so normal😅
8. FSD worked like a champ. I’ve fallen asleep behind the wheel of a “regular” car, lucky to be alive. I wish FSD would of been around when that happened.
9. What’s the problem? Overtaking where it is forbidden to film this? Not honking? AI?
10. Holy smokes, is this where we are heading? Let’s be careful out there. So now drunk drivers don’t have to worry about driving. Yikes, not saying this person was, although must be exhausted.
11. I am getting too old for this kind of world we are going into.
12. An excellent example of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system performing exactly as designed ……smoothly, reliably, and without problems.
13. I suspect this is fake, for all the reasons that others have cited. In particular, the screen appears to be off. Normally, it would be showing the full self driving navigation image.

We do not claim the video is real. With AI, anything is possible. If it had appeared on any news source other than Electrive, we probably would have ignored it. Personally, I agree with comment #11! We know our readers will have something to say about this and we look forward to your comments.

An Update

Two weeks ago, a Tesla driven by Michael Butler crashed into a house in Katy, Texas, killing a woman in the living room. Last week, the driver was charged with manslaughter. And yet, responsibility for the incident may not be as clearcut as some might imagine. Apparently, pressing the accelerator while FSD is engaged is a fairly common practice. For a detailed analysis of the situation, head on over to this link.