The use of steering wheel weights to bypass safety features while using vehicles’ self-driving technology is reportedly trending among Tesla drivers.
Tesla’s self-driving technology is known as Autopilot, which is “an advanced driver assistance system” that comes in several packages. Features include AI-assisted parking, lane changing, and “Full Self-Driving Capability.” AI-assisted steering is still “upcoming,” according to the Tesla website.
Approximately 400,000 Tesla vehicles have been outfitted with full self-driving, the company said in March, according to Barron’s.
While the Autopilot system can operate without the driver’s physical input, drivers are supposed to stay alert and keep their hands on the wheel. The system issues regular reminders to the driver, known as “nags.”
Some Tesla drivers have attempted to bypass the Autopilot nag from its outset, with reports of some sticking oranges into the steering wheel to mimic the weight of their hands, according to The Washington Post.
Formalized defeat devices were also developed and sold on online marketplaces like Amazon and AliExpress. One such device — the Autopilot Buddy — was the subject of a consumer advisory warning issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2018.
“A product intended to circumvent motor vehicle safety and driver attentiveness is unacceptable,” said then-NHTSA Deputy Administrator Heidi King in the advisory.
While the NHTSA managed to force the company behind AutoPilot Buddy to stop selling and marketing its product in the United States, defeat devices continue to be sold. Sellers reportedly list them on online platforms as steering wheel weights, knobs, cellphone holders, safety hammers, and more, according to the Post.
Although Amazon and Alibaba remove such listings for safety issues and policy violations when they are flagged, they are not technically illegal. Moreover, the demand for such products — often available for purchase at prices ranging from $30 to $100 — remains.
Tesla has tried implementing safety features to ensure drivers are active behind the wheel in Autopilot mode. For instance, a software update last year made it so that the vehicle will temporarily disable Autopilot mode if the driver does not apply torque to the steering wheel when prompted. The company also has a camera-based driver monitoring system for Autopilot to which it plans on adding a drowsiness detector.
Yet on Reddit, the subject of Tesla’s Autopilot nags has been frequently raised, with some users noting issues with the software. For instance, some claimed the software has failed to detect their hands gripping the steering wheel.
Responding to some Tesla drivers’ annoyance with the nag feature, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted, “We are gradually reducing it, proportionate to improved safety.”
“Elon Musk’s saying it’s supposed to drive itself. That’s what they’re going to hear,” Koopman told the Post. “How do you think they’re going to behave?”
Nevertheless, safety officials are dismayed by the trend of Tesla drivers using defeat devices like wheel weights, with at least two recent traffic incidents linked to them, the Post reported.
Last December, a driver in Germany fell asleep behind the wheel of his Tesla and woke up to find that he had been involved in a 15-minute police chase.
In March, a teenager was struck getting off a school bus in North Carolina by a driver in Autopilot mode using a defeat device and sustained life-threatening injuries.
