From the backseat of a Tesla… to the backseat of a police car.
A California man was arrested this week after cops caught him riding in the backseat of a Tesla with no one in the driver’s seat, a stunt he has performed multiple times, according to police and several videos shared on social media.
Param Sharma, 25, was charged with two counts of reckless driving and disobeying a peace officer Monday evening following a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in the Bay Area. Police said he quickly moved into the driver’s seat once they turned on their lights and siren behind him.
But Sharma, who got out of jail the next day, does not seem worried about the risk of operating a Tesla even when the vehicle is on Autopilot mode. In a video shared on his Instagram page Monday, the suspect was seen riding alone in the backseat of his car before turning the camera toward a tablet that showed a news story about himself. Just two days earlier, he posted another video of the same stunt as well as screenshots of another article about him.
“I came outta the pandemic in a self driving car U blue blue collar peasants can’t understand my life,” he wrote in one of the posts.
A day after his arrest, Sharma told a local news station he was going home in a friend’s Tesla while the pair sat in the backseat.
“I’m gonna go in the back seat right now. You feel me? I’m waiting for my car to charge,” he told KTVU.
The California Highway Patrol said Sharma was cited for riding in his Tesla Model 3 “in the same reckless manner” on April 27 and fits the description of a man captured in videos that other drivers provided to police before his arrest. The images shared with police Monday were recorded on I-80 across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toward the city of Oakland, authorities said.
“The safety of all who share our roadways is the primary concern of the CHP,” the agency said in a news release. “The Department thanks the public for providing valuable information that aided in this investigation and arrest.”
Police did not confirm whether Sharma’s Tesla was indeed on Autopilot, which allows a car to steer, brake and accelerate within its lane.
