It was a boozy joyride captured for TikTok with a soundtrack provided by Justin Bieber and with a Tesla serving as the ¡°Designated Driver" for the night. In the short video, three young men are shown dancing in their seats, beers nearby, as the vehicle moves down the highway near other cars at 65 miles per hour (105 kilometres per hour), as shown on the speedometer.
Nobody is behind the steering wheel.
The video clip, which has been ¡°liked" by nearly two million people and shared 105,000 times, is just one of many similar ones on social media reviewed by AFP.
Such behaviour is completely illegal and flouts the instructions of the automaker, which says on its website that Tesla¡¯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."
Besides Tesla¡¯s ¡°Autopilot" system, which matches a vehicle¡¯s speed to that of surrounding traffic and assists in steering within a clearly marked lane, Tesla offers what it calls ¡°full self-driving capability."
That program¡¯s capabilities include helping park a car, manoeuvre a vehicle in and out of a tight parking space and guide a car from a highway on-ramp to an off-ramp.
Tesla will alert the driver and ultimately disengage the self-driving system if the driver¡¯s seatbelt is not buckled, or if the hands of the driver are not detected on the steering wheel.
California regulators have said they are reviewing whether Tesla¡¯s marketing misleads consumers ¡ª specifically, whether it has violated a regulation that ¡°prohibits a company from advertising vehicles for sale or lease as autonomous unless the vehicle meets the statutory and regulatory definition of an autonomous vehicle," the Department of Motor Vehicles told AFP.