Driver filmed ‘sleeping’ behind the wheel of his car

A driver in the US has been filmed appearing to sleep behind the wheel of his Tesla, while the car speeds down a highway on autopilot.

A driver has been caught on camera appearing to sleep behind the wheel of a Tesla while the car speeds along a US highway.

Footage of the unsettling incident was posted to Twitter by Dakota Randall, who noticed the sleeping driver while travelling along the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Some guy literally asleep at the wheel on the Mass Pike (great place for it), he wrote. Teslas are sick, I guess?

The video appears to show the man fast asleep with his head slumped forward and no hands on the wheel.

A female passenger also appears to be sleeping, leaning back in her chair with her eyes closed.

Mr Randall claimed the car was travelling between 88 and 96km/h.

The car keeps a constant speed as the person filming passes by.

Mr Randall told NBC he tried to wake the driver up by honking but neither he nor the passenger seemed to notice.

I kind of looked over and saw what I thought was somebody asleep at the wheel and I was like that can’t be right, so I did a double-take, looked over and sure enough this guy was just, head between his legs completely asleep, he said.

Teslas have an autopilot setting but the company states it is “not a self-driving system”.

The Tesla website states that the autopilot mode is “intended for use with a fully attentive driver”.

Footage of the incident has been shared thousands of times, with many social media users horrified by the reckless act.

Tesla responded to the incident claiming videos of this nature are often pranks.

Many of these videos appear to be dangerous pranks or hoaxes. Our driver-monitoring system repeatedly reminds drivers to remain engaged and prohibits the use of Autopilot when warnings are ignored, a spokesperson said.

At highway speeds, drivers typically receive warnings every 30 seconds or less if their hands aren’t detected on the wheel.

Tesla owners have driven billions of miles using Autopilot, and data from our quarterly Vehicle Safety Report indicates that drivers using Autopilot experience fewer accidents than those operating without assistance.

Mr Randall followed up by claiming he didn’t post the video as a hoax.

For the record, this was no hoax, at least not on my part. Maybe the people in the car were faking being asleep, but I’m sceptical, he said.

I just saw something weird on the highway and recorded it. Nothing revolutionary.