A driver is facing criminal charges after his Tesla, which he claims was on autopilot, slammed into a Massachusetts state trooper at a traffic stop in December, pinning the officer between the Tesla and the stopped car.
Nicholas Ciarlone, the driver of the Model 3, told the the trooper at the scene of the crash that his vehicle was set on autopilot and that he “must not have been paying attention”, according to the incident report. He could not be reached for comment on the matter and is set for arraignment in September. He is now facing criminal negligence charges.
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Tesla’s autopilot function has been front and center in several incidences. The instructions for Tesla’s autopilot clearly say that a driver should always be paying attention and ready to take over at a moment’s notice. Despite this fact, there have been plenty of cases of drivers not paying attention, causing the car to run into something.
It’s an issue that has been questioned since autopilot and self-driving cars started to become a reality, as many wonder how much the technology can be trusted.
We certainly are living in crazy times, in many ways.
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