Malaysian Influencer Posts Video of Boyfriend “Sleeping” in Self-Driving Car. Now Wanted By Police

While the impression is that self-driving cars are but a day away, as car manufacturers might like you to think, the truth is that they are still a way off.

Truth be told, most production vehicles that are on the road now are a Level 2 at best, based on the Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) grading, and even the most advanced autonomous vehicle is a Level 3. This means that whichever car that claims to be capable of driving itself still requires human supervision at all times and human intervention if the need arises.

With numerous incidents of crashes and even fatalities involving drivers putting too much trust in their vehicle’s self-driving capabilities, the authorities in most countries do not allow drivers to fully relinquish control and certainly not allow them to take a nap behind the wheel.

One Malaysian influencer, however, has landed her boyfriend in hot soup by sharing evidence of him doing exactly so on her Instagram account. As reported by a local daily, the video posted on 8 March by Gatita Yan showed the man sitting in the driver’s seat of a moving BMW with his eyes closed. One hand was supporting his head and the other by his side (none on the steering wheel) while both feet were off the pedals. The couple was apparently on their way to Ipoh, a city 200km north of Kuala Lumpur.

Yan might have been just innocently trying to create content (and showing off their car) but she and her partner are now the center of a police investigation. The video has since been deleted but screenshots of the video went viral, eventually gaining the attention of the authorities who are now on “a hunt” to locate and detain the man in the video.

Meanwhile, the couple are continuing to update their social media accounts seemingly unperturbed that they are now “wanted” people. Perhaps they are even a little bit pleased with the attention although this writer thinks that if you are going to break the rules, how about not share evidence of it with the world.