CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — A man says his car saved his life, preventing him from colliding with a wrong-way driver.
Imagine you’re driving on a dark road and a driver is coming at you head-on in your lane. By the time you see their headlights would you have time to react or would you trust your car to do it for you?
The near-death experience was avoided because the autopilot feature enabled the car to drive itself.
“I initially looked down to see what was going on with the car and why it was reacting or why it was braking. When I looked up I saw the vehicle in my lane and before I could even put my foot on the brake it had started changing lanes,” Bret Peters said.
Peters tells FOX 46 he was heading down Highway 49 near Cabarrus arena early Friday morning when a car driving 60 miles per hour in the wrong direction came at him head-on and the entire thing caught on camera.
“It’s sobering how dangerous it is driving at night and I make that commute twice a day every day. It’s right at an hour each direction. That’s a lot of miles and a lot of time on the road and knowing that I have that safety feature is huge.”
The husband and father says the oncoming car appeared instantaneously leaving him virtually no time to react.
“Distracted driving is what’s killing people. This car is always watching. It knew that there was nobody in the lane to the right of me and started making that lane change to the right because it was already looking. It had been constantly looking.”
Tesla’s new technology has caught vandals and sleeping passengers. Now it’s saving lives. Despite some of the bad wrap the car has received, Peters has a message for skeptics.
“Get over yourself. Technology is faster and more responsive and it’s paying attention even when you’re not.”
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Peters, a former State Trooper, says if you’re driving and something doesn’t look or feel right pull over and figure it out before it costs you or someone else their life.
