License Suspended while sleep on Autopilot?

[Garlan Garner]

My question is:

How long could a person sleep on autopilot before the car itself has stopped?

Tesla driver gets license suspended after drunkenly falling asleep on Autopilot

My car warns me every 20 to 30 seconds to hold the wheel and if I have no response.....then it starts its shutdown process if no response is provided.

How far could that last? a mile?

 

[darxsys]

In this case, the police said that the driver fell asleep with his hands on the wheel, which might have applied enough torque to stop Autopilot from bringing the vehicle to a stop due to an unresponsive driver.

That’s your answer.

 

[Wooloomooloo]

My question is:

How long could a person sleep on autopilot before the car itself has stopped?

Tesla driver gets license suspended after drunkenly falling asleep on Autopilot

My car warns me every 20 to 30 seconds to hold the wheel and if I have no response.....then it starts its shutdown process if no response is provided.

How far could that last? a mile?

According to the article you quoted, but maybe didn't read, the man fell asleep with his hands on the steering wheel, and so maybe applied enough pressure on it to stop the AP nagging.

 

[Garlan Garner]

According to the article you quoted, but maybe didn't read, the man fell asleep with his hands on the steering wheel, and so maybe applied enough pressure on it to stop the AP nagging.

I don't see how that's possible.

Try it.

Its just not possible to keep from putting too much force on the wheel while asleep and forcing the car out of of EAP.

 

[quickstrike12]

Sure it is.
Many different ways to grip the wheel and have your arms in lap or on the armrests etc.
just one would be to push your wrist through bottom opening and just rest it there hanging. Because it’s mostly at bottom area it won’t even put all that much torque in the wheel. But maybe enough.

 

[Kuhz]

I don't see how that's possible.

Try it.

Its just not possible to keep from putting too much force on the wheel while asleep and forcing the car out of of EAP.

It’s possible especially if the road has some curvature to it

 

[Garlan Garner]

Sure it is.
Many different ways to grip the wheel and have your arms in lap or on the armrests etc.
just one would be to push your wrist through bottom opening and just rest it there hanging. Because it’s mostly at bottom area it won’t even put all that much torque in the wheel. But maybe enough.

Sure it is....but not when you are sleep.

Really people? Come on.

The weight of his arm and hands must have been absolutely perfect the whole time. Not too much and not too little.

 

[darxsys]

Sure it is....but not when you are sleep.

Really people? Come on.

The weight of his arm and hands must have been absolutely perfect the whole time. Not too much and not too little.

You're over complicating. There are many different ways to hold the steering wheel and many different positions that will be just enough for autopilot to be fine and not nag you. From what you're saying, it sounds to me like you need to grip the steering wheel with the force of a bodybuilder in order for autopilot to work.

 

[Garlan Garner]

You're over complicating. There are many different ways to hold the steering wheel and many different positions that will be just enough for autopilot to be fine and not nag you. From what you're saying, it sounds to me like you need to grip the steering wheel with the force of a bodybuilder in order for autopilot to work.

I have about 10k miles of NOA under my belt. I'm fully aware of the band between "not enough force" and "too much force" to keep Autopilot going.

Its extremely narrow and I can't imagine that someone unconscious could keep the weight of their arms in that narrow range.

 

[sixela]

They do have pictures of the guy asleep at the wheel. It's real. At least the autosteer was working and they managed to wake him up with the sirens...

 

[Garlan Garner]

They do have pictures of the guy asleep at the wheel. It's real. At least the autosteer was working and they managed to wake him up with the sirens...

I don't question that he's sleep. Not at all.

I'm trying to figure out how the car drove long enough for the cops to "keep trying" to wake him up.

 

[darxsys]

I have about 10k miles of NOA under my belt. I'm fully aware of the band between "not enough force" and "too much force" to keep Autopilot going.

Its extremely narrow and I can't imagine that someone unconscious could keep the weight of their arms in that narrow range.

People here have given you reasonable explanations, so I don’t know what else you want. People have different grips, muscle strength, sleep styles. His seat could be adjusted just well enough for this to work. How was he resting his arms on his legs? So many variables. Plus he was drunk so maybe it wasn’t even normal sleep, or full sleep. Maybe he was dreaming about having sex with his significant other, and when they do it, he just pulls their hair so in this case the hair was the steering wheel. Or whatever.

 

[Garlan Garner]

People here have given you reasonable explanations, so I don’t know what else you want. People have different grips, muscle strength, sleep styles. His seat could be adjusted just well enough for this to work. How was he resting his arms on his legs? So many variables. Plus he was drunk so maybe it wasn’t even normal sleep, or full sleep. Maybe he was dreaming about having sex with his significant other, and when they do it, he just pulls their hair so in this case the hair was the steering wheel. Or whatever.

Maybe his arms were being held up by balloons...etc.

That would be reasonable. right?

Yeah....good luck with those "reasonable" explanations.

 

[Wooloomooloo]

Maybe his arms were being held up by balloons...etc.

That would be reasonable. right?

Yeah....good luck with those "reasonable" explanations.

OK, what do you think happened?

From the pictures it looks as though his hands are on the bottom of the steering wheel. I often bring my knees upwards towards the wheel and rest my wrist on my knee, and grip the wheel lightly at about 5 o'clock, which is the most comfortable and relaxed I find I can get that maintains torque on the wheel with very little effort.

People fall asleep with glasses of wine in their hands, or holding a book open - it's not that far fetched he fell asleep gripping the wheel.

 

[SoCal Buzz]

Same thing happened with this driver, who didn't even wake up when police tried to pull over. The car remained on AP, and police drove in front and gradually slowed down so the Tesla would stop on it's own. Sticking your arm through the bottom is enough to stay on AP, and I suspect would not disengage unless you hit some turns that created excessive down-force.

Calif. police use Tesla system to halt sleeping man’s car

 

[timvracer]

I smell an agenda.

I have leaned against the wheel in slow traffic, and just having my weight on the wheel, shifting a bit here and there as car stops and goes, and it totally defeats the nags.

I don't get your refusal to accept a very logical explanation, but whatever, everyone has a keyboard.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

 

[Bmac]

I do believe that it is possible to grip the steering wheel at the bottom which would provide, IMO, sufficient torque. I don't know why Tesla doesn't think of having a 2nd authentication process. GM uses some type of retinal indicator -- supposedly it's looking at your eyes and determining if they are open or shut. That might be a more secure authentication process to prevent idiots on the road trying to outsmart Tesla or simply being too drunk to care.

 

[quickstrike12]

Maybe a side conversation but in regards to AP crash that killed the Florida driver. Does anyone know of or read anything about some of the other OEM driver assist cars that have had serious accidents or failures?
I can only assume they would be likely to have the same problems under certain conditions.
Possibly not enough of them on the road yet to give a large sampling size?
Anyway just curious.

 

[Bmac]

My guess is that there is no driver assist vehicle that would operate on local roads to the extent that Tesla's autopilot does. My understanding of the Florida crash is that it occurred at an intersection, and nobody should have autopilot functioning where a 90° turn is necessary. I don't chalk that up to a failure of autopilot as much as it is a human error.