The RCMP in Alberta have charged a 20-year-old British Columbia man with speeding while he was asleep at the wheel of a Tesla electric car.
The RCMP received a call at about 4 p.m. on July 9 concerning a 2019 Tesla Model S speeding south on Highway 2 near Ponoka, about 100 kilometres south of Edmonton.
Both front seats were fully reclined, and both the driver and passenger appeared to be sound asleep, police say.
The car appeared to be driving on autopilot at more than 140 km/h, RCMP Sgt. Darrin Turnbull told CBC News on Thursday. The speed limit on that stretch of highway is 110 km/h.
“Nobody was looking out the windshield to see where the car was going,” he said.
“I’ve been in policing for over 23 years and the majority of that in traffic law enforcement, and I’m speechless.
“I’ve never, ever seen anything like this before, but of course the technology wasn’t there.”
Tesla Model S sedans have autopilot functions, including auto-steer and “traffic-aware” cruise control, and both functions appeared to be activated.
“We believe the vehicle was operating on the autopilot system, which is really just an advanced driver safety system, a driver assist program. You still need to be driving the vehicle,” Turnbull said.
“But of course, there are after-market things that can be done to a vehicle against the manufacturer’s recommendations to change or circumvent the safety system.”
After the responding officer activated emergency lights on their vehicle, the Tesla automatically began to accelerate, Turnbull said, even as those vehicles that were ahead of the Tesla on the highway moved out of the way.
“Nobody appeared to be in the car, but the vehicle sped up because the line was clear in front.”
The responding officer obtained radar readings on the vehicle, confirming that it had automatically accelerated to exactly 150 km/h.
The RCMP charged the driver with speeding and issued a 24-hour licence suspension for fatigue.
After further investigation and consultation with the Crown, a Criminal Code charge of dangerous driving was laid against the driver, police said.
The driver was served with a summons for court in December.
Autonomous cars are in their early stages in much of Canada, with Ontario and Quebec approving pilot projects as long as a vigilant driver is present to take control of the vehicle when needed.
There have not been any reported self-driving car crashes in Canada, but several have been reported in the United States, putting Tesla’s autopilot driving system functions under scrutiny.
On Dec. 29, 2019, a Tesla Model S sedan left a freeway in Gardena, Calif., at high speed, ran a red light and struck a Honda Civic, killing two people inside, police said. On the same day, a Tesla Model 3 hit a parked firetruck on an Indiana freeway, killing a passenger in the Tesla.
On Dec. 7, a Model 3 struck a police cruiser on a Connecticut highway, but no one was hurt.
Tesla’s autopilot function is designed to keep a car in its lane and at a safe distance from other vehicles. Autopilot also can change lanes on its own.
‘It gives all of us a bad name’
Angie Dean, president of the Tesla Owners Club of Alberta, said the incident is troubling for the 300 paying members of her group and the more than 1,000 active members of the club’s online Facebook group.
Dean said the driver-assist functions in Tesla vehicles are designed to enhance safety, not detract from it.
“This type of story is sort of next to a worst-case scenario,” she said. “The only thing that would be worse than this is if someone had got hurt. Everyone that I’ve spoken with is just so disappointed and so frustrated because it’s abuse of the system.
“It gives all of us a bad name, and the vast majority of us would never do something like this. We bought these cars because we want to be safer.”
The driver-assist program requires regular input from the driver to function, Dean said. If the driver’s hands come off the wheel, warnings begin going off every 15 seconds, she said.
“It asks you to put your hands on the wheel and turn it a little bit so that it knows that your hands are on the wheel,” Dean said.
“If you don’t, it starts beeping at you. And if you still don’t, it gets even louder. And if you still don’t, it actually turns the hazard lights on, slows the vehicle down and it pulls it over. It turns the car off and autopilot will not engage for the rest of that drive.”
The technology behind self-driving cars is available and in use, but there are examples showing it may not be fully ready for the real world. 2:09
Despite the build-in safeguards, videos circulating online instruct drivers on ways to “hack” and override these systems, Dean said.
“There are a lot of systems that are in place that are really, really trying not to make this possible. But if there’s a will, there’s a way, I suppose. ”
Just because some vehicles can drive themselves, it doesn’t mean they should, the RCMP said.
“Although manufacturers of new vehicles have built in safeguards to prevent drivers from taking advantage of the new safety systems in vehicles, those systems are just that — supplemental safety systems,” said Supt. Gary Graham of Alberta RCMP Traffic Services.
“They are not self-driving systems, they still come with the responsibility of driving.”
Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
