When getting in trouble with the law, the hope is the one getting in trouble will learn their lesson and will be deterred from repeating the behavior in the future. For one Tesla owner, it has done the complete opposite.
Though he was arrested for relying a little too heavily on the car's self-driving features, one man's mind was not changed. He even went and bought an entirely new Tesla to prove it.
As KTVU reported, Param Sharma had been arrested on two counts of reckless driving, though technically he wasn't driving at all. He was riding in the backseat of a Tesla with the car's self-driving mode on, despite California laws stating that even when using autopilot features in cars, there must always be someone behind the wheel.
And on Wednesday, he pulled in for an interview with KTVU once again riding in the back with no one in the driver's seat.
When asked in that interview if he had simply purchased a new Tesla, he responded, "Yeah, I’m rich as [expletive]. I’m very rich."
Despite Sharma's insistence that he feels safer in the back with no one driving than in the front, experts say that Tesla's autopilot features are not totally safe, especially in the wake of past accidents involving them.
Even fellow Tesla owners agree. "Technology is not there yet. And being a Tesla owner, there’s still a lot of unknowns to take that risk or even consider it at this time," South Bay resident David McPherson told KTVU.
The former reported Tesla's Full Self Driving feature being inconsistent, sometimes disengaging entirely, while the latter has told the feature's beta testers to stay vigilant as it could still "do the wrong thing at the worst time."
His court date is set for July 6, but he's said he's going to keep riding in the back seat. And if this Tesla gets taken as well? "I’ll just get a new Tesla every time. I have unlimited money to blow on Teslas. If you take my Tesla away, I will get another Tesla."
He adds, "I feel like by mid-2022 the backseat thing will be normal. And I think right now people are just taking it out of proportion."
h/t: KTVU
