Another Tesla driver apparently fell asleep – this is what Tesla could do

Yet another Tesla driver has apparently fallen asleep behind the wheel while his car was driving on the highway. The latest video comes from the Boston area, where a local man caught a video of a Tesla driver and his passenger sank as their car barreled down Interstate 90.

"I looked and saw what I thought was someone sleeping at the wheel, and I was like that can't be right, so I took a double roof, looked over and sure this guy was just, head between legs completely asleep, "Dakota Randall told a local TV station.

Randall says that he tried to wake the driver by trapping the horn without success.

This has become a common occurrence. Last month, a Los Angeles-area television station showed a video of a Tesla with a dormant driveway on Interstate 5. We reported two other incidents in June and another in the Netherlands in May.

"Many of these videos appear to be dangerous pranks or hoaxes," Tesla said in an email statement. "Our driver monitoring system repeatedly reminds drivers to be engaged and prohibits the use of Autopilot when warnings are ignored." Tesla says its own data shows that "drivers who use Autopilot experience fewer accidents."

As we mentioned before, drowsy driving events are not limited to Tesla cars. Hundreds ̵[ads1]1; maybe even thousands – of non-Tesla cars crash every year after their drivers fall asleep. The most important thing that makes these Tesla cases remarkable is that – apparently thanks to Autopilot – the cars do not immediately drive off the road and into a ditch. They can continue on the road – sometimes miles – while drivers sleep.

Autopilot may have saved the lives of some Tesla drivers who would have ended up in fatal crashes without the technology. On the other hand, the existence of Autopilot may have convinced motorists – encouraged them to get behind the wheel, even if they were too tired to drive safely. It may also be easier to fall asleep with Autopilot engaged, since the driver does not drive the car actively.

It's not clear how this works – whether Autopilot makes Tesla owners more or less likely to crash as a result of drowsy driving. But anyway, there is an obvious way for Tesla to solve this problem once and for all.

The Case for Better Driver Monitoring Systems

Currently, Tesla checks for driver intervention by measuring the torque on the steering wheel. "At highway speeds, drivers usually receive warnings every 30 seconds or less if their hands are not detected on the steering wheel," Tesla's statement said. If warnings are ignored, the car eventually stops.

This is better than nothing, but the steering wheel torque is not a very effective way to determine if the driver is actually alert on the road as these sleep – events on the steering wheel make it clear. We do not know whether the driver fell asleep with his hands resting on the steering wheel, or whether the Tesla cars in these videos just had not forced the drivers to pull over yet. It's also possible that some of these videos were prank, with drivers pretending to be asleep, but actually keeping the wheel from scratch.

But in any case, more sophisticated driver monitoring technology will help. Advanced systems from companies such as Subaru and Cadillac are based on cameras and eye tracking software. Such a system can tell if a driver is looking at the road, looks down into his lap, or has his eyes closed and is thrown into the seat. These types of systems can take immediate action if the driver appears to be asleep.

More aggressive alerts are also possible. In a comment on a previous article about sleeping drivers, the reader describes LordOfThePigs behavior of his or her deceased VW vehicle. If the driver ignores warnings for about 20 seconds, "driving the car by quickly applying and releasing the brakes, the seatbelt is very abruptly tightened," the reader wrote.

"I don't know what's going on then, because I dare not continue the experiment," the reader reported. "The last step is freaking scary and would definitely wake me up if I slept (and give give me an extra adrenaline boost that would keep me awake). "

If Tesla implemented the combination of camera-based driver monitoring and more aggressive driver alerts, it could almost completely eliminate the problem of sleeping drivers on the highway. This is a good idea if you think that the current version of Autopilot is already saving lives by preventing crashes from drowsy drivers.

And to be clear, this is not just a problem for Tesla. Other car manufacturers can also use more sophisticated driver monitoring technologies, and the technology can help to save lives whether a vehicle is equipped with an Autopilot driver assistance system.