Tesla’s Autopilot Takes Owner to Hospital

A man suffered a pulmonary embolism behind the wheel of his car in the US, but instead of crashing Joshua Neally activated the autopilot on his Tesla Model X car and it took him to a nearby hospital.

Tesla cars have autopilot built into them which enables the car to drive itself and sensors that react to traffic.

Joshua had just merged onto the highway when he suffered a stabbing pain in his chest/stomach area but managed to stay calm, locate a hospital and activate the car’s autopilot mode, which took him there. Joshua then manually steered into the car park and checked into the emergency room.

A pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the pulmonary artery, the blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the lungs and is potentially fatal. Doctors say he was lucky to survive this whilst driving.

“I’m very thankful I had [autopilot] for this experience”, Joshua told a local news station. “If something like that happens where I become unconscious or incapacitated while I’m driving, I’m not going to cross over the interstate and slam into somebody or slam into one of the big rock walls”.