A shocking sight was captured on a busy Interior B.C. highway over the weekend with a driver apparently asleep at the wheel of a self-driving Tesla.
Carleigh King was travelling with her family from Alberta to B.C. on Highway 1 between Golden and Revelstoke on Sunday afternoon and one of her sons started to feel carsick.
“So we pulled over and got some fresh air, and then I gave him the front seat, and I took the back passenger seat, and was reading my book, and I started to not feel very good, actually, so I looked out the window,” King told Global News.
“I saw this car; my husband was passing this woman in a black Tesla, and I looked… I did a double, triple, quadruple take. I didn’t understand what I was seeing, and I said to my husband, ‘I think that lady is asleep’.”
They slowed down a bit and saw “she was definitely asleep at the wheel,” King added.
She said the highway was very busy and they called 911 right away.
“I took the video as soon as I could, and then got on the phone with Revelstoke RCMP right off the bat, and they were amazing,” King said.
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She said there were also two children in the car.
“We kind of kept our distance and hoped that nothing bad would happen, but I didn’t know what to do,” she added.
“The Trans Canada is an incredibly busy stretch of highway, and the construction zones are all over, and they vary; you never know where they’re going to be, or around what corner, as well as wildlife and unpredictable drivers, too.
“It can be actually a bit of an exhausting trip to do that. We generally travel that highway with the horse trailer, and it’s a lot of work to pay attention to what’s happening around you and looking out for the other drivers. So to see somebody fast asleep at the wheel with children in the car was absolutely mind-blowing.”
Cpl. Michael McLaughlin with the B.C. Highway Patrol said when it comes to self-driving vehicles, he has some concerns.
“Just because your vehicle comes with some fancy electronic intervention and automation doesn’t mean you can actually use it on our roads,” he said.
“In British Columbia, you’re allowed up to level two intervention. These are common things like adaptive cruise control, lane assist, some braking and acceleration. You cannot do a full self-driving mode in British Columbia. You have to be awake, alert, in control, a hand on the wheel, feet near or on the pedals at all times.”
McLaughlin said a driver caught asleep behind the wheel could face penalties, including a drive without consideration charge, which is about $196, and a drive without due care and attention charge, which is just under $400 per ticket. And both include penalty points on the driver’s licence.
“This is something we take seriously,” he said.
“You need to be in control when you drive. It’s very similar to driving while distracted or impaired. We wouldn’t allow that. You can’t be asleep either.”
McLaughlin said they have seen some cases of people asleep behind the wheel, but it is the driver’s responsibility to be aware when they are driving.
“We are in a cautious phase when it comes to self-driving technologies,” he added.
“They work really well until they don’t. So, the laws in B.C. are clear: you’re allowed to use things like adaptive cruise control, but you must be awake and alert.”
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