The California Highway Patrol said it arrested a man seen riding in the back seat of a Tesla Model 3 that had no one in the driver's seat. Param Sharma, 25, was arrested "and booked into Santa Rita Jail" on counts of reckless driving and disobeying an officer, the department said in astatementTuesday. Sharma was arrested after multiple 911 calls on Monday around 6:30 pm reported a driverless vehicle "traveling eastbound on I-80 across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toward the city of Oakland," police said.
Sharma spent a night locked up, and he "committed the same crime shortly after being released from jail," according to astory yesterday by KTVU Fox 2:
Param Sharma met KTVU's Jesse Gary in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon, not far from his mother's high-rise apartment. After getting out of jail on two counts of reckless driving, he pulled up sitting in the back seat of a Tesla with no one in the driver's seat.
When asked if he purchased a new Tesla after the previous one was impounded he said, "Yeah, I'm rich as [expletive]. I'm very rich."
"I feel safer back here than I do up there," Sharma also told KTVU from the right-rear passenger seat.
Sharma expressed confidence in Tesla's self-driving capabilities inanother interviewwith KTVU. "I've been brake-checked before really hard, and the car stopped. The car came to a complete stop. [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk really knows what he's doing, and I think people are tripping and they're scared," Sharma said.
The officer who pulled over Sharma "observed the individual move into the driver's seat" and then bring the car to a stop, police said. Police said they had already "cited Sharma on April 27 for similar behavior."
Sharma posted videos from back seat
Sharma this week also posted videos on Instagram of himself in the back seat of a moving Tesla with an empty driver's seat. Inone video, he is reading an article about himself titled "Man seen riding in the back seat of Tesla with no driver." Ina video posted yesterday, he says, "I just got out of jail. I already got [another] Tesla. You feel me, I'm rich like that. I came out of thepandemica fucking millionaire, bitch."
A California Highway Patrol spokespersontold Vice's Motherboardthat it is "recommending charges to the district attorney's office" and "conducting a thorough investigation that will consider the possibility of previous incidents and obviously his social media."
Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” isn’t “autonomous”
Teslasaysthat "Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver." Consumer Reports last monthfoundthat Tesla's driver-monitoring system "not only failed to make sure the driver was paying attention, but it also couldn't tell if there was a driver there at all."
Tesla's Full Self-Driving system has more capabilities, but both "Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability are intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment," Tesla says.
Musk has said he expects the company to achieveLevel 5automation—the ability to drive without human attention—by the end of this year. However, anewly released California DMV memosays that Tesla's director of Autopilot software, CJ Moore, told state regulators in March that Musk's predicted timeline "does not match engineering reality."
Tesla has a permit to "operate autonomous vehicles with human backup drivers in California," but it does not have a permit "to put fully self-driving vehicles on California roads," anAssociated Press articlenoted in October 2020.
California lawallows public useof autonomous cars if they meetcertain conditions. But Tesla says its cars aren't autonomous despite the names "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving." A Tesla lawyertold the California DMVin December 2020, "[C]urrently neither Autopilot nor FSD Capability is an autonomous system, and currently no comprising feature, whether singularly or collectively, is autonomous or makes our vehicles autonomous."
NTSB investigating deadly Tesla crash
In April,two men diedwhen a Tesla Model S crashed into a tree in a residential neighborhood in Texas. Authorities said they found no one in the driver's seat, but the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report cast doubt on whether Tesla's Autopilot system was being used. As wewrote当时,“NTSB说视频商店ws the occupants getting into the front seats of the car shortly before the crash," and "the NTSB was unable to engage a component of Autopilot on the stretch of road where the crash happened." NTSB investigators were able to "activate the Traffic Aware Cruise Control component of Autopilot on the stretch of road in question."
"Using Autopilot requires both the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and the Autosteer systems to be engaged," the NTSBreportsaid.
362 Reader Comments
Ah, so *you* were the toilet paper guy.
Verdict: Guilty
Sentence: Death
I'd say revoke his license but odds are he'd just drive again. Arrest and hit him with criminal charges without bail.
It reminds of Gordon Johnson who insists that Tesla is a fraudulent company & they have warehouses of unsold cars & then let slip that his dad was a long time GM exec
https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/tsla-g ... al-motors/
Edit:
To the down voters. "Getting paid" does not imply a Tesla competitor in the auto space.
It could very well be wanting to promote his channel & is getting paid to pull these stunts from advertisers etc
Last edited bymadmax559on Thu May 13, 2021 2:35 pm
I'd say revoke his license but odds are he'd just drive again. Arrest and hit him with criminal charges without bail.
Technically, if he's in the back seat is he driving? Do you need a driver's license to ride in a car?
*parks my car at the top of an SF hill, set in neutral and hit the parking brake*
*disengage the parking break and run back into the back seat*
*careens into a local elementary school*
"but officer, I wasn't driving!'
I think the word you're looking for is Affluenza, though I just call it sociopath.
I'd say revoke his license but odds are he'd just drive again. Arrest and hit him with criminal charges without bail.
Technically, if he's in the back seat is he driving? Do you need a driver's license to ride in a car?
Bless your heart.
Wherewereyou from 2016 to last January?
Arrest him again, hold him without bail for being an obvious ongoing danger, and impound his vehicle pending the outcome of his trial.
I'd say revoke his license but odds are he'd just drive again. Arrest and hit him with criminal charges without bail.
I am not sure CA's laws, but in many states, if he doesn't have a valid driver's license he won't be able to purchase a vehicle (at least not from a dealer) as many states want proof of vehicle insurance and your license before you can drive it off the lot. The later he would then not have and the former he is generally not going to be able to get without the driver's license also.
I am sure there are creative ways he could still do it, but it would make it a lot harder for him.
At a minimum revoke it. It'll make it harder. And also then the book can get thrown at him if he then does it again. I mean, not likely to be years in prison, but he'd likely get hemmed up much longer in jail and also face REAL jail time if convicted. Lastly, no judge or jury is likely to show sympathy in convicting him or in sentencing him either has he has shown a repeated pattern.
It reminds of Gordon Johnson who insists that Tesla is a fraudulent company & they have warehouses of unsold cars & then let slip that his dad was a long time GM exec
https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/tsla-g ... al-motors/
It's amazing how anytime there's anything bad about Tesla then "It must be a false flag operation!!!1!" (also known as "shorts" apparently).
On topic, if he feels safer in the back, then they should pull his license immediately. Obviously not qualified to be in control of a vehicle. Also I'd actually be a fan of the police intentionally tracking him down and impounding any new vehicles he tries to buy. Million doesn't last that long when you are losing a new car every week...
Upon further reflection, I wonder if Tesla will bar him from buying more cars/accessing self driving software - simply because he is making them look bad.
That's a funny way to pronounce "kill someone else due to his negligence".
With any luck, the court will require him to stop driving at all as a condition of his release. When he inevitably violates the court order, he can be put in jail for contempt of court for as long as the judge feels is appropriate.
If the seat belt is buckled, it no longer monitors the weight sensor. Then he uses his foot to wiggle the steering wheel, apparently. No, I'm not kidding.
EDIT (used wrong term).
The article mentions that there is no verification done by the autopilot to ensure a driver is present.
Yes and no. The CR investigation at least showed there was a check to engage autopilot, but less to make sure they were still there afterwards. And I think the seatbelt has to stay engaged? Plus the whole wheel torque sensor. My takeaway was it is possible, but does require work.
I suppose we should just let him out to go buy another one. How many old gas-guzzling cars are there in the government fleet needing to be replaced with Teslas? Let's get to work on it.
Or a taxi. Or a bus.
The article mentions that there is no verification done by the autopilot to ensure a driver is present.
You need to have your "hands" on the wheel, although in this case he had his feet:
https://www.instagram.com/p/COtTvoPjchr/
It reminds of Gordon Johnson who insists that Tesla is a fraudulent company & they have warehouses of unsold cars & then let slip that his dad was a long time GM exec
https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/tsla-g ... al-motors/
It's amazing how anytime there's anything bad about Tesla then "It must be a false flag operation!!!1!" (also known as "shorts" apparently).
On topic, if he feels safer in the back, then they should pull his license immediately. Obviously not qualified to be in control of a vehicle. Also I'd actually be a fan of the police intentionally tracking him down and impounding any new vehicles he tries to buy. Million doesn't last that long when you are losing a new car every week...
Upon further reflection, I wonder if Tesla will bar him from buying more cars/accessing self driving software - simply because he is making them look bad.
If he feels that much safer, then it sounds like he shouldn't have a license.
Also perhaps with his fat stacks, he should hire a professional driver.
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