An Orange County Tesla driver wasn’t actually driving his Tesla while cruising past the scene of a fatal car accident last week, and that Tesla in self-driving mode went and crashed into a police car.
It’s a bad mistake if you had shifted your Tesla into “full self-driving” mode so you can check your phone, and while in self-driving mode, the Tesla rams into another vehicle. It is an even worse mistake when the vehicle your Tesla crashed into was a police car. But that’s what happened early Thursday morning last week in the Orange County city of Fullerton, as KTVU reports that a Tesla in self-driving mode crashed into a police car, and a police car whose officer was dealing with a fatal collision at that.
The Tesla hit the police car while the officer was directing traffic around the crash scene at just after midnight on Thursday, June 13 at West Orangethorpe Avenue and Courtney Avenue in Fullerton. The Tesla driver admitted to being on the phone and having his vehicle in self-driving mode, and cooperated with authorities after the crash.
According to the Fullerton Police Department, the police car had its emergency lights on, and there were flares placed all about the street. The police officer reportedly barely dodged the incoming Tesla.
“Self-driving mode can be convenient, but always remember the importance of staying alert and ready to take over at any moment,” that police department said in a statement to Los Angeles’ KTTV. “While there are no laws against the ‘self-drive’ mode, all rules and laws of the road still apply to the driver while controlling the vehicle.”
So yes, a driver can be charged with distracted driving even if their vehicle is in self-driving mode. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that distracted driving caused 3,308 deaths on US roadways in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.
Related: Tesla Is Now Recalling 360K Cars With ‘Full Self Driving’ Software Over Reported Flaws [SFist]
Image: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – JANUARY 09: Tesla Model 3 compact full electric car interior with a large touch screen on the dashboard on display at Brussels Expo on JANUARY 09, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium. The Model 3 is fitted with a full self-driving system. (Photo by Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images)
Joe Kukura
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