Tesla owner blames car for DUI crash

Driver says electric vehicle ‘had been on autopilot’ when it rear-ended a fire truck

The driver had a blood-alcohol content nearly double the legal limit and a tenuous relationship with consciousness when his car slammed into the back of a parked fire truck on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge.

Still, he became maybe the first to add a technologically advanced new entry to the list of drunken driving excuses.

He wasn’t driving, the man told the highway officer Monday morning. The car was.

According to the California Highway Patrol, the driver explained that his Tesla electric vehicle “had been set on autopilot,” obviating the need for him to be in control of the vehicle or, well, sober.

He was wrong, of course, and was ultimately jailed under suspicion of driving under the influence. But as word of another Tesla autopilot crash spread, the case of car as designated driver became an interesting thought exercise for anyone with more than a passing interest in vehicles that drive themselves.

If Elon Musk and other forwardthinking automakers have their way, there will soon be a time when there is no more drunken driving because cars never have to wonder whether they’ve had one too many vodka martinis.

Carmakers are transparent about that caveat emptor quality of their vehicles. Tesla, for example, warns that its autopilot system is not fully autonomous. Attempts to reach Tesla for comment were not immediately successful. But the company instructs drivers to be alert because they are ultimately responsible for their vehicle and whatever it smacks into.

Authorities have not identified the driver of the Tesla that crashed into the fire truck on the Bay Bridge.

No one was seriously injured in the wreck; the firefighters were parked in the emergency lane and car pool lane, responding to a crash on the other side of their truck, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Tesla can check the car’s data to see whether the car was indeed using autopilot before the crash, but have not released that information.

CULVER CITY FIREFIGHTERS LOCAL A Tesla rear-ended a fire truck parked in California on Monday, according to the Culver City Fire Department and California Highway Patrol.