Tesla service worker caught on video might've used Autopilot mode to nap
A short video posted this week appears to show a Tesla mobile service worker not paying attention to the road or holding the steering wheel.
The electric car company has custom Model S sedans for its mobile service team and it looks like one worker was using Tesla's semi-autonomous mode, Autopilot, for whatever reason. It's not possible to know if Autopilot was engaged from the short video and it's also not clear if the person is sleeping, momentarily looking away, or dealing with something else entirely.
A Tesla spokesperson said in an email, "We take safety very seriously and are investigating this incident.”
The video poster says a friend filmed the video earlier this week near Fremont, California where Tesla is based. Tesla's mobile service brings maintenance services to owners so they don't have to go to a service center.
The possible misuse of Autopilot comes as Tesla continues to defend the semi-autonomous tool for making driving safer. Autopilot is supposed to be used for advanced cruise control and auto-steering, but is not fully autonomous and drivers need to keep hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.
Earlier this year a man was killed in a crash with Autopilot engaged in his Model X SUV. A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board came out this week detailing how the car acted in the moments before the fatal crash on a freeway south of San Francisco.
Federal investigators found that Autopilot was on and had been used multiple times before the crash. Fifteen minutes before the crash the system alerted the driver three times to put his hands on the steering wheel. In the seconds leading up to the crash, the vehicle sped up and didn't brake or steer away from a crash attenuator.
Five days after the crash the battery reignited after bursting into flames at the scene of the crash.
Topics Tesla
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
