CBC News: Viral video appears to show woman asleep behind the wheel on busy B.C. highway
RCMP are investigating after a video circulated that appears to show a driver asleep at the wheel of a Tesla travelling on a busy highway in southeastern B.C.
The footage was captured by another motorist, Carleigh King, driving along the Trans-Canada Highway between Golden and Revelstoke on Sunday afternoon.
In the video, a woman in a grey Tesla can be seen sitting in the driver’s seat with her eyes closed and hands off the steering wheel as the vehicle moves along the highway.
‘You can’t let the robot drive your car for you’
According to the Society of Automative Engineers’ classification, which B.C. recognizes, there are six levels of vehicle automation ranging from 0 to 5.
Level 0 has no automation, while levels 1 and 2 have driver-assistance technology.
“It requires essentially that the vehicle assists the driver in operating the vehicle. So lane departure warnings, automatic braking, that type of thing,” said Kyla Lee, a lawyer at Acumen Law in Vancouver.
Amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act that came into effect in April 2024 prohibit driving Level 3 or higher automated vehicles, which don’t require a person to drive the car at all.
Lee said the driver in the viral video could face a range of legal consequences.
“Anything from a simple violation ticket all the way up to criminal charges for dangerous operation of a motor vehicle,” she said.
“There could also potentially be criminal charges related to negligence if there are children in the vehicle and those children are put at risk by the driver not supervising as the vehicle is travelling down the highway.”
