Indian origin man booked in London for plying Driver-less Car on a busy street

May 1, 2018:

He pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving and was handed down the driving ban.

A person of Indian-origin, a Tesla owner who was filmed relaxing in the passenger seat after putting his super-car into autopilot mode on a busy UK highway has been banned from driving for 18 months.

PIO Bhavesh Patel was spotted leaning back with his hands behind his head beside an empty driver’s seat as his Tesla S60 while it cruised at about 40mph along the M1 motorway near Hemel Hempstead last year.

The 39-year-old Accused pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving and was handed down the driving ban, ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work and undergo a 10-day rehabilitation programme.

He was also ordered to pay 1,800 pounds in court costs to the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) at a hearing earlier this month.

Investigating officer Kirk Caldicutt, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Road Policing Unit, told that “What Patel did was grossly irresponsible and could have easily ended in tragedy.”

Britain’s road investigators were on the other hand told by Tesla engineers that the autopilot function, including traffic-aware cruise control and auto-steer, was only intended to assist a “fully attentive driver”.

However Patel chose to switch his car on the autopilot function before moving across to the passenger seat and leaving the steering wheel and foot controls completely unmanned while his GBP 70,000 car was in motion.

A witness, who was a passenger in another car, filmed Patel as the car drove past.

This Footage of the incident was first posted on social media before it was reported to police and a Notice of Intended Prosecution was then sent to Patel in the post before he was interviewed at a police station.

Source Express