An Indian-origin man from San Francisco, USA landed in jail for doing stunts in his Tesla. The man identified as Param Sharma is infamous for doing similar stunts in his Tesla in the USA. He has multiple videos of himself sitting in the rear seat of the Tesla while operating it on autopilot.
The 25-year old Indian-American is a notable person and gained popularity for making social media posts showing his lavish lifestyle. He was arrested over the weekend for sitting in the backseat of his Tesla Model 3, which was on autopilot. The California Highway Patrol arrested him and said on Facebook that he was spotted riding in the backseat of a Tesla travelling on Bay Area roadways, with no other person seated in the driver seat.
The Highway Patrol further said that Param Sharma was arrested without an incident and was booked into Santa Rita Jail on two counts of reckless driving and disobeying a police officer as per the CBS News. Before his arrest, California Highway Patrol had posted two images of the man doing the same thing in two other incidents.
After his arrest, he was released but that did not change his mind. Sharma himself posted videos on his Instagram account showing himself sitting in the rear of the Tesla reading news accounts of the driverless Tesla passenger while trolling the Highway Patrol. In another video, he has posted a point-of-view angle of a person sitting in the rear seat of the Tesla at night. The car was moving on a freeway he shows the infotainment system that shows the vehicle heading towards north on Interstate Highway 280 in Hillborough.
Mocks everyone in the video
On his Instagram account, Sharma has posted several videos and one of them is the screenshot of the news of his driverless Tesla posted by the Highway Patrol. He captioned the photo “I came outta the pandemic in a self driving car U blue blue collar peasants can’t understand my life.”
He also says in one of the videos posted on the same account, “You see this car? You peasants can’t afford this car” as he smirks.
Another caption on his account reads, “You guys r all cheap poor low class peasants that can’t afford lambo trucks and i11’s I purposely drive it in ur ghetto to make you feel small,”
Tesla calls it hands-on driver assistance system
Tesla autopilot system has been abused and misused several times in the past. The official website of the carmaker says, “Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car”.
The autopilot mode cannot be activated unless the driver agrees to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times and to always maintain control and responsibility for the car. Since different states of the USA have different rules, the California state stipulates that autopilot cars have someone behind the wheels at all times.