Please don't get high while your Tesla drives itself
It still requires a human to take control at a moment's notice, which will be tough when you're stoned out of your gourd.
One of the first stories I wrote for Roadshow covered what I called "the stupidest misuse of Tesla's autopilot yet." Well, that person needs to step aside, because we've found something even more stupid.
This video comes from the Instagram channel of comedian Lil' Duval. It very clearly shows Duval inside a Tesla operating on Autopilot, but instead of paying attention to the road, he reclined the seat and proceeded to smoke what appears to be a giant joint. I don't even have to open up Andrew's Big Book of Common Sense to know that's a ridiculous thing to do, let alone publicize.
Autopilot is a good system, but it's not fully autonomous. It'll hold a Tesla in its lane, steer around curves, keep pace with traffic and even aid in changing lanes. That said, at any point, the system could require a human to take control of the vehicle, and it's paramount that drivers heed those warnings in a timely manner. If they don't, bad things can happen.
It's going to be a good, long time until you can unwind with whatever while a vehicle drives itself down the road. The closest we have to that right now is Waymo's fleet of self-driving Pacificas. Waymo recently announced that it's ditching the safety driver as part of a public pilot in the Phoenix area, but the company probably frowns upon the recreational use of marijuana (which is still illegal in Arizona as well as on the federal level) inside its vehicles.
Update, 4:42 p.m. Eastern: Lil' Duval, via Twitter, alleges it was just a cigar. Either way, his seating position was not that of an attentive driver and could have very well reduced his ability to take control of the vehicle at a moment's notice, so even if there was no blueberry yum-yum harmed in the making of this video, it still stands as a good example of how not to use Autopilot.
