Unlicensed, Underaged Teen Blames Tesla Autopilot For Driving The Car

According to a recent report shared by Electrek, two teens were pulled over by the police. They were driving a Tesla, neither was of age to drive, so neither had a license. When the police pulled them over, they found the driver in the rear seat, and the other teen in the front passenger seat. The kids both told the police they weren't driving the car, it was driving itself.

As it turns out, the teen who was reportedly driving the car also didn't have permission from its owner to use it. She apparently moved to the back seat after the Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy pulled her over for driving the Tesla Model Y on the wrong side of the road. This reportedly occurred near Daytona Beach, Florida

According to reports, the two teens, a 14- and 15-year-old girl, had driven the Model Y some 300 miles from Charleston, South Carolina to Florida. The driver's mother thought the girls were at a grandmother's house.

When the police pulled the car over, the Tesla stopped but then rolled backward into the police car. There was no damage to the police car, but the Model Y sustained $300 in damage. Had Autopilot been correctly engaged, it's not likely the car would have come to a stop or freely rolled backward.

The police quickly realized the girls were lying in hopes of getting away with driving illegally. The release said deputies determined that the teens were, in fact, driving the car before they attempted to put it in Autopilot.

Electrek quoted Sheriff Rick Staly via Daytona Beach News-Journal:

These kids are very lucky that no one was hurt and their actions didn’t have more serious consequences. It doesn’t matter if you are driving a ‘smart car,’ driving without a license is still against the law. I hope these kids have learned a valuable lesson and I am grateful that no one was hurt and only minimal damage occurred to their vehicle.

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The driver was cited for driving without a license. The two teens spent the night in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Family until their parents could come to pick them up.

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