Inside Edition spoke with one music producer who stunned police officers by driving with his feet out his window.
As debate rages over Tesla’s controversial autopilot feature, a California music producer is putting the electric car's self-driving capability to the test with his feet hanging outside the window — that is, until police intervened.
Joseph Mourad, who goes by the moniker Klypso, loves his Tesla model and its self-driving capability. He recently took Inside Edition’s Jim Moret for a ride, during which he read a book and took a selfie, among other activities that don't involve keeping your eyes on the road.
On a previous journey, Mourad said a stunned California Highway Patrol Officer pulled up alongside his car as his feet hung outside the vehicle's window.
"The officer was blown away, he did not know how to react to the situation," Mourad said. "He asked me why I was driving with my feet out the window."
Mourad was issued a ticket, not for the foot infraction, but for going too slow. He was driving 25 mph in a 65 mph zone. He says the car was going slow due to heavy traffic.
“It wasn't for reckless driving — it was for driving at an unsafe slow speed and talking on my phone," he said.
The ticket was later dismissed.
Mourad says driving with your feet out the car window isn’t safe and he does not recommend it at all.
Since the self-driving Tesla model hit the market in 2014, drivers have been posting videos of themselves doing all sorts of stunts behind the wheel, except actually driving.
Some drivers have posted on social media that they were playing games, eating snacks, and taking naps while the car was on autopilot and it was driving itself.
On their website, Tesla makes it clear that "Autopilot is intended for use only with a fully attentive driver. Always keep your hands on the wheel and be prepared to take over at any time."
During a TED Talk last year, Tesla honcho Elon Musk predicted that in a couple of years, drivers will be able to sleep in their car and make it to their destinations safely.
Musk tweeted last month that an advanced autopilot model currently in development was feature-rich, but those features, "aren’t reliable enough yet."
The California Highway Patrol told Inside Edition in a statement that even when using the autopilot feature, the driver is still fully responsible for the safe operation of the vehicle.
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