RCMP are investigating after a video circulated that appears to show a driver asleep at the wheel of a Tesla travelling on a busy highway in southeastern B.C.
The footage was captured by another motorist, Carleigh King, driving along the Trans-Canada Highway between Golden and Revelstoke on Sunday afternoon.
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In the video, a woman in a grey Tesla can be seen sitting in the driver’s seat with her eyes closed and hands off the steering wheel as the vehicle moves along the highway.
King said there were also two children in the back seat of the car, though this has not been confirmed by the Revelstoke RCMP.
Fred Lambert, editor in chief at electric transportation news website Electrek, said it was possible the driver had circumvented the monitoring system.
“The car manual requires that every time that you turn the [automation] feature on, there’s a pop-up that says that you have to pay attention,” he said.
A camera located above the rearview mirror tracks the driver’s eyes and “nags” them to apply pressure to the steering wheel if they look away for too long.
However, Lambert said, there were ways to get around the rules, including the use of polarized sunglasses and plug-in “nag-defeating” devices.
“This driver is using sunglasses … so that’s definitely part of the equation.”
“I see that she has an accessory around the wheel, like a wheel cover. I don’t know if that will play a part in defeating the monitoring system, but it might.”
Lambert said self-driving technology was reaching levels of sophistication that meant some drivers were becoming complacent.
“You see it being so good that you get overconfident … but the data that we’re seeing right now still points to a critical incident every 4,000-5,000 miles a year, so, you know, about 8,000 kilometres. Which might not sound like it’s too bad … But a human driver can easily go 300,000 miles without having an accident.”
According to the Society of Automative Engineers’ classification, which B.C. recognizes, there are six levels of vehicle automation ranging from 0 to 5.
Level 0 has no automation, while levels 1 and 2 have driver-assistance technology.
“It requires essentially that the vehicle assists the driver in operating the vehicle. So lane departure warnings, automatic braking, that type of thing,” said Kyla Lee, a lawyer at Acumen Law in Vancouver.
Amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act that came into effect in April 2024 prohibit driving Level 3 or higher automated vehicles, which don’t require a person to drive the car at all.
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Cpl. Michael McLaughlin, media relations officer with the B.C. Highway Patrol, said for now the province is taking a cautious approach.
“You must always be alert, sober, fully-focused on the road, at least one hand on the steering wheel … It is not legal to rely on full self-driving technologies in British Columbia,” he said.
“You can’t let the robot drive your car for you.”
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Lee said the driver in the viral video could face a range of legal consequences.
“Anything from a simple violation ticket all the way up to criminal charges for dangerous operation of a motor vehicle,” she said.
“There could also potentially be criminal charges related to negligence if there are children in the vehicle and those children are put at risk by the driver not supervising as the vehicle is travelling down the highway.”
