Troopers: Woman twice the legal limit found sleeping in Tesla with autopilot on

April 25, 2026

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Kimberly Brown.png

Kimberly Brown (Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office)

SARASOTA, Fla. (WKRC) — A woman who Florida Highway Patrol said was twice the legal limit and trying to use her Tesla on autopilot to get home safely was arrested after she was found asleep in the car on an interstate.

According to the highway patrol, 37-year-old Kimberly Brown had reportedly believed the autopilot would get her home safely, but the Tesla’s autopilot feature requires drivers to be looking forward at all times and must detect eye movement to work. If a driver is not looking forward, the car will send out alerts, Alistair Weaver, editor-in-chief of Edmunds.com, told WWSB.

If the alerts are ignored, the car will shut down. That’s what happened to Brown’s car, which troopers said came to a halt in the middle lane of I-75 north in Sarasota around 2 a.m.

“This was extremely dangerous,” Trooper Kenn Watson told the outlet. “She should not have been behind the wheel. Unfortunately, she was intoxicated more than two times [the legal] limit.”

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Brown was charged with DUI.

  

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