A California man was arrested after video appeared to show him riding in the back seat of his Tesla while the car drove itself on Autopilot, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Param Sharma, 25, was arrested Monday evening after someone recorded the Tesla traveling eastbound on Interstate 80 on the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge toward Oakland. California law requires a human to be behind the wheel of the vehicle. He was booked at Santa Rita Jail.
After his release Tuesday evening, Sharma spoke with KTVU and did not sound remorseful. He told the station he planned to keep doing it, saying he would be going to the back seat while waiting for his car to charge.
Nick Josefowitz, chief of policy for the nonprofit public policy group SPUR, told the outlet that self driving cars are very dangerous and called them robots that have not been certified.
According to reports, this was Sharma’s second arrest in about a month tied to riding in the car while it drove itself. He faces two counts of reckless driving and a count of disobeying a peace officer, and he is due back in court on July 6th. The charges are allegations, and he had not been convicted at the time of this report.
Made to order and shipped to your door.
