---
title: "Watch a Tesla Driver Cruise Down the Highway Completely Asleep"
description: "A new video shows a Tesla driver asleep at the wheel while his car, presumably with Autopilot mode enabled, cruises down the Massachusetts Turnpike."
date: "2019-09-10"
modified: "2019-09-10"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-driver-cruise-highway-asleep"
categories:
  - "Advanced Transport"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Sleep"
  - "Tesla"
tags:
  - "Autonomous vehicles"
  - "tesla"
  - "the digest"
  - "transport"
---

# Watch a Tesla Driver Cruise Down the Highway Completely Asleep

![A new video shows a Tesla driver asleep at the wheel while his car, presumably with Autopilot mode enabled, cruises down the Massachusetts Turnpike.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/watch-tesla-driver-cruise-highway-asleep.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Tesla/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Power Napping

Another day, another viral video of a moronic Tesla driver taking a nap behind the wheel while his car cruises down the highway.

On Sunday, *NESN* producer Dakota Randall [tweeted out a video](<https://twitter.com/DakRandall/status/1170777292768985089>) he took on the Massachusetts Turnpike. In the 30-second clip, a man appears to be dead to the world behind the wheel, slumped over as his Tesla barrels down the highway as a woman in the passenger seat appears to be snoozing as well.

While there's a chance that the video is a prank, it's just one of a growing number of reports of [drunk](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/drunk-tesla-driver-autopilot>) or [conked out](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/sleeping-tesla-driver-autopilot>) drivers dangerously relying on Tesla's autopilot mode, a function that's more like a [glorified cruise control](<https://futurism.com/tesla-crash-confused-autonomous-autopilot>) than actual autonomous tech.

https://twitter.com/DakRandall/status/1170777292768985089

## Car Chase

Randall [told *WHDH*](<https://whdh.com/news/caught-on-camera-tesla-drives-sleeping-motorist-down-massachusetts-turnpike/>) that he drove next to the Tesla for about a minute, occasionally beeping his horn in a fruitless attempt to wake the driver. So far, Massachusetts state police have neither filed a report nor identified the sleepy driver, but told *WHDH* in general terms that sleeping behind the wheel would be grounds for a charge of negligent and impaired driving.

"At no point did I feel like I was in danger until after the fact, when I thought 'Wow, I was just driving next to somebody who was completely asleep on the Mass Pike of all places, like one of the most dangerous roads I can imagine,'" Randall told *WHDH*.

**READ MORE:** [Caught on camera: Tesla drives sleeping motorist down Massachusetts Turnpike](<https://whdh.com/news/caught-on-camera-tesla-drives-sleeping-motorist-down-massachusetts-turnpike/>) \[*WHDH*\]

**More on Tesla:** *[Idiot Drivers Can’t Grasp That Teslas Aren’t Fully Autonomous](<https://futurism.com/idiot-drivers-tesla-autopilot-autonomous>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)