In the latest trend in video sharing on social media, some TikTok users are sharing videos of them letting their Tesla Autopilot take over their EVs while driving on the highway. The video clip has been “liked” by over 2 million viewers.
According to CTV News Canada, a short, boozy ride was shared on TikTok that shows three young men dancing in their seats, beers nearby, as the vehicle moves down the highway near other cars at 105 kph, (65 mph) as shown on the speedometer.
And it is not just Tik Tok users getting into what they think is a “fun thing,” but the videos are showing up on a number of social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and more, reports Tech Times.
To date, the social media giant and short-form video app TikTok decided to tag users posting driverless Tesla videos as dangerous. But the company has not banned the videos, yet. All they say is if “users continue to do this, it could cause them serious injury.:”
The whole point is this – Not only is this trend stupid as all get out, but it is illegal. It also flouts the instructions on Tesla’s website that the automaker’s driver-assistance system is “intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.”
The main way Tesla’s cars measure driver attention is through torque sensors in the steering wheel that look for resistance — a crude way of ensuring drivers keep their hands on the wheel. If it doesn’t register enough feedback, the car performs a series of escalating visual and audible warnings.
But that has all changed, now that Elon Musk has given in to regulators and safety experts, who for years begged Tesla to install better driver monitoring saystems in teir cars.
According to The Verge, Tesla is starting to use the camera above the rear-view mirror in the Model 3 and Model Y to make sure people pay attention to the road while using Autopilot, the company’s advanced driver assistance system.
But with all the driver protection systems in a Tesla, and there are a bunch of them, including a system that will ultimately disengage the self-driving system if the driver’s seatbelt is not buckled, or the driver’s hands are not on the steering wheel, they are “no big deal” to some idiots.
According to VOA News, Consumer Reports released a video in which an incredulous tester easily duped a Tesla into driving with no one at the wheel.
“Idiots will be idiots, they will find a way to trick the system and that’s not Tesla’s fault, they can put a bunch of other things here people will just defeat it,” a poster calling himself “Dirty Tesla” said in a video on his YouTube page, which has 55,000 subscribers.
The bottom line is simple – All social media platforms should ban homemade vdeos showing drivers fooling te Tesla’s self-friving system. They are not cute, nor are they funny. And they prove one thing – There is an idiot born every minute..
