# When the police need to stop a self-driving car **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 1, 2023, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-police-need-to-stop-a-self-driving-car/977454 "2023-01-01T08:47:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 12
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2023, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-police-need-to-stop-a-self-driving-car/977454/12 "2023-01-01T18:15:22Z")
This is not the first time this situation has happened. In fact, I started a thread about it way back in 2018: > [@Autopilot prevents a drunk driver from crashing](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autopilot-prevents-a-drunk-driver-from-crashing/825421): > > Story about how it took police 7 miles to stop the car: [here](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/11/cops-pull-over-tesla-cruising-on-a-freeway-with-apparently-asleep-driver/). This is good news. (Except for the guy who now faces DUI charges, of course.) Without the Autopilot, there’d have been a crash with potential injuries. The only thing I can’t figure out is why it took so long to bring the car to a stop. All they had to do is get in front of it with another car and slow down. Which is what they did, but it should have only taken a few hundred meters, not seven miles. I guess they were just too cautiou… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-police-need-to-stop-a-self-driving-car/977454)._