US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday said human drivers must pay attention at all times after videos emerged of people wearing what appeared to be Apple’s recently released Vision Pro headset while driving Teslas.
Buttigieg responded on Twitter/X to a video that had more than 24m views of a Tesla driver who appeared to be gesturing with his hands to manipulate a virtual reality field.
Despite their names, Tesla’s assisted driving features – Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving – do not mean the vehicles are fully autonomous, Buttigieg said Monday on social media.
“Reminder – ALL advanced driver assistance systems available today require the human driver to be in control and fully engaged in the driving task at all times,” Buttigieg said.
It could be fake, but it’s just as, if not more likely real. The video is clearly a public road with other traffic around (waiting at the lights).
Also Tesla are having enough difficulty getting their autopilot features signed off, and Apple definitely wouldn’t want to advertise their Vision as a tool you can use while driving.
I never said, or meant to say, the guy wasn’t wearing an actual headset. I’m saying this was done to get attention and the guy isn’t going around driving with a headset on when the camera isn’t rolling. It’s a fake controversy drummed up by an attention whore who clearly hit a nerve.