Tesla Owner Arrested After Riding In The Backseat While His Car Was In Self-Driving Mode

A man was arrested in California after being seen in the back seat of his Tesla as the car drove itself on autopilot.

Param Sharma was arrested Monday evening by California Highway Patrol after someone recorded a video of the 25-year-old in his Tesla on Interstate 80 traveling eastbound on I-80 on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toward Oakland. California law requires that a human is behind the wheel of the vehicle.

He was booked in Santa Rita Jail. After his release on Tuesday evening, he interviewed with KTVU, where he was not remorseful about riding in the backseat of his car. In fact, he boasted that he would never stop doing it despite his arrest.

“I’m gonna go in the back seat right now. You feel me? I’m waiting for my car to charge,” Sharma told KTVU.

Nick Josefowitz, chief of policy for SPUR, the nonprofit public policy organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, said that the use of self-driven cars is “so dangerous,” calling them “robots that haven’t been certified.”

This is Sharma’s second time in nearly a month being arrested for allowing his car to drive itself. Sharma has been hit with two counts of reckless driving and disobeying a peace officer. He is due back in court on July 6th.