Sleeping China driver in self-driving car sparks public road safety backlash

A man in China who watched a movie and slept while using his car’s self-driving system has sparked a public safety debate.

A video circulating on Weibo shows the driver and his passenger lying in the front seats under blankets, watching a movie and sleeping, while their car raced down the highway at speeds exceeding 110 km per hour.

Mainland media outlet Modern Express reported that the car involved is a Zeekr electric vehicle.

Zeekr staff said that their self-driving system, the Navigation Zeekr Pilot (NZP), launched in 2023 as a highway driving aid, is not fully autonomous but rather a driver assistance feature that requires human interaction.

It supports functions such as autonomously entering and exiting highways and changing lanes. To maintain driver control, the car emits an alert if the steering wheel is left unattended for too long.

However, the man circumvented this safety alarm by placing a bottled beverage on the steering wheel to trick the system into believing it was being held.