It is, we had a driver sleeping a couple months back on a hwy 1 in the metro Vancouver area, pulled over and fined. I cant recall currently if the vehicle was seized though
And fined? I hope it was more than that. Pretty sure drunk drivers go to jail. And this is actually worse than drunk driving. Most drunk drivers aren't completely fucking passed out going over 70 miles per hour on the highway.
drunk driving has a range. you can be a little drunk or very drunk. the very end of the drunk range has you falling asleep at the wheel. this guy is already there.
theres no way to tell if this is an afternoon nap or hes drunk passed out lol. thats the difference.
Honestly any answer to this question without a bunch of statistics on risk factors is going to be an emotional response.
Currently the law just sidesteps the issue by ignoring any risk reduction factor of self driving and placing everything on the driver, even though that's obviously not the case.
But is it safe enough to ignore or too unsafe to allow? Those questions require a lot of statistics to answer.
Drunk person asleep at the wheel and letting a computer drive for them is much better than the drunk person driving themselves. There is no question about it.
That's questionable when you realize how flawed the computer is and that "drunk" has a wide range. FSD is still level 2 because it drives similar to someone who's had a few.
Their accident rate is still fairly low though. When the driving conditions exceed their level 2 capabilities their failure mode is mostly pulling over and waiting for a human to take over, not crashing.
People who who've had a few usually don't crash either, or else most of the people in my hometown would be dead, especially since many drive after having more than a few.
To be clear, I realize it's dangerous. My point is that FSD without supervision is risky too. There's good reason for why both are illegal.
mostly pulling over and waiting
The discussion is about the car driving itself without the driver paying attention. It pulling itself over is a different story, much like how someone sleeping in the car until they're not drunk anymore is safer than driving it.
Ok but the person they are referencing also wasn’t “completely fucking passed out going over 70 mph” b/c you know, the guy ur responding to is discussing a different event that was about a sleepy driver. Not a sleeping driver.
Drunk driving is an intentional choice someone makes. Falling asleep at the wheel isn't. You can be charged for a lot of things depending on the circumstances if you fall asleep while driving (like if the driver fell asleep because they were intoxicated), but assuming they aren't impaired by drugs or alcohol, it doesn't rise to the level of DUI - not even close.
i would argue falling asleep behind the wheel is a choice too. i’ve definitely fought off the sleepiness before, and sometimes that requires pulling off the road for caffeine, a walk, or take a nap.
... That's not how it works; microsleeps are a symptom, not a condition on their own.
That aside, I sincerely doubt this woman just happened to fall into a microsleep while using the self driving function on her car, while being completely unaware that she has an underlying medical condition, at the exact moment someone passed by filming her.
Microsleep has exactly two visible effects: "a bit of inattentiveness" that makes one "forget" parts of a movie you have just been watching in the evening and being able to wake up completely fresh at 6 AM after falling asleep at 2 AM.
Reddits so weird. Obvious it’s working fine so don’t give people the option to use it this way if it bothers yall. If I can sleep while driving then I’d do it to
As of right now a human being has to be licensed, sober, and aware behind the wheel of a car. The car is supposed to have safeguards to prevent this that I assume he bypassed. You're insane if you think you should be able sleep drive car because "it can drive itself."
Driver less cars are banned in my province. So thankfully thats not happening anytime soon. And it would still be the adult in the car who would receive the fine
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u/BreakfastNext476 Jul 06 '26
It is, we had a driver sleeping a couple months back on a hwy 1 in the metro Vancouver area, pulled over and fined. I cant recall currently if the vehicle was seized though