Skip to main content

Tesla Autopilot feature helps driver get safely to hospital

US driver Joshua Neally made it to safely to hospital by putting his Tesla Model X into Autopilot mode when he suffered what was later diagnosed as a pulmonary embolism. The lawyer was travelling home in growing rush-hour traffic when he began to suffer severe pain in his chest and stomach. Instead of calling an ambulance he used the car’s self-drive mode to negotiate the 20 miles to the nearest hospital. He told Slate that he manually steered it into the parking lot and checked himself into the emergenc
August 10, 2016 Read time: 1 min
US driver Joshua Neally made it to safely to hospital by putting his Tesla Model X into Autopilot mode when he suffered what was later diagnosed as a pulmonary embolism.

The lawyer was travelling home in growing rush-hour traffic when he began to suffer severe pain in his chest and stomach. Instead of calling an ambulance he used the car’s self-drive mode to negotiate the 20 miles to the nearest hospital. He told Slate that he manually steered it into the parking lot and checked himself into the emergency room, where he was promptly treated.

Tesla’s Autopilot is under scrutiny after the driver of a Tesla crashed into a truck in Florida while using the feature. The crash is still under investigation.

Related Content

  • ITS green light for two wheels
    January 19, 2023
    Cycling is increasingly promoted as a healthy and sustainable mode of transport. So, ask Ronald Jorna and Robin Kleine of Mobycon, what role should ITS play in stimulating active travel?
  • Autonomous vehicles – saviour and threat, says report
    November 1, 2016
    A new report from IDTechEx Research notes that autonomous vehicles need no pilot, not even one in reserve. Many truly autonomous vehicles are unmanned mobile robots prowling everywhere from the ocean depths to nuclear power stations, the upper atmosphere and outer space. They create billion dollar businesses such as aircraft and airships aloft for five to ten years on sunshine alone carrying out surveillance or beaming the internet to the 4.5 billion people who lack it. Independence of energy and electri
  • Doha implements traffic control system
    November 21, 2012
    Expansion of ITS systems has accelerated in Qatar this year, with rapid deployment of a traffic control system in Doha. Less than 10 years from now an extensive system of ITS technology will be operating in Qatar, informing and directing users of the country’s roads. That can be stated with confidence for a number of reasons: the world’s richest country per capita will host the World Cup in 2022 and is understood to be planning to develop sophisticated systems of ITS for road safety and traffic managemen
  • Programming a smoother commute
    January 18, 2013
    Work being carried out by the University of Toronto’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Centre could have a beneficial effect on the city’s congestion problems. Says Professor Baher Abdulhai of the Centre, "Everybody realises that we have a big congestion problem in Toronto and the scarier part is that it's getting worse, exponentially." One of the solutions he's working on is smarter traffic lights using artificial intelligence to control the flow of traffic. "Each traffic light would learn how to time i