14 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: MAY 2017 I f you tell an elderly person there are such things as driver-less cars, odds are they’ll look at you like you’re on drugs or talking about some science fiction movie. But the robots have arrived and some of them appear to be lousy drivers. According to a recent article from AZ Central, a Phoenix police motor- cycle was struck by a Tesla Model X reportedly operating on autopilot. It’s been a rocky road for robot cars in Arizona recently. The incident in Phoenix came hot on the heels of another accident in- volving an automated Uber vehicle in Tempe. Phoenix police told reporters that accident happened when a Tesla driver and an on-duty officer exited the Black Canyon Freeway. Thankfully no one was hurt. “It wasn’t even a reportable colli- sion. If it wasn’t involving an officer, we would not have even investigated it,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Alan Pfohl said. The cop was in front of the Tesla, stopped for a stoplight, police said. But after pausing briefly, the Tesla moved forward. That prompted the officer to jump off his motorcycle to avoid being run over. Thankfully the computers appar- ently realized what was happening and hit the brakes. The Tesla did strike the fallen mo- torcycle but there was no damage to either vehicle. The officer on the motorcycle said he figured the Tesla was only going about three miles per hour at the point of impact. Here’s the weird part. It’s unclear if the Tesla was even in auto pilot mode. The Tesla driver told police that he did indeed have the vehicle on autopilot at the time of the incident, but Sgt. Pfohl said investigators were unable to determine if that was the case. There’s a lot that’s unknown about the autopilot feature. It’s not supposed to be used all the time and the driver is required to remain engaged, according to the company website. Tesla announced last October it will soon be offering hardware in its vehicles that could make them fully autonomous. The robots can’t drive “Don’t blame me. I’m an interpreter. I’m not supposed to know a power socket from a computer terminal.” Wrap a virtual fence around your community to proactively prevent crime and improve safety. Add investigative power and enhance safety with fixed license plate recognition cameras without increasing manpower. Strategically positioned cameras at entries and exits create the virtual fence. • Receive alerts when vehicles of interest enter your community • Identify rolling stolens • Get more information for criminal investigations 2017 Vigilantsolutions.com License Plate Recognition. Analytics. Facial Recognition.