A teenage girl is blaming the auto pilot feature on her Smart Car after the vehicle crashed into a deputy's patrol car in central Florida.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, a deputy spotted a Tesla going the wrong way on State Road 100 in Palm Coast last Friday.
The deputy pulled over the car. The car stopped but then backed up into the deputy's cruiser.
As the deputy approached the Tesla, two girls, ages 15 and 14, were in the car. No one was in the driver's seat. One girl was in the front passenger seat while the other was in the back.
According to the sheriff's office, the girls claimed to be on a road trip from Charleston, South Carolina, to visit one of their fathers.
The girls claimed the car was on autopilot when it backed into the deputy's car.
Investigators later determined that one of the girls was actually driving the Tesla before putting it in autopilot, which caused the crash.
The deputy gave the teen driver a citation for driving without a license. Investigators said the parents could not get to the scene that night to pick up their daughters, so the Department of Children and Families took them into custody.
According to the sheriff's office, the mother of one of the girls thought she was at her grandmother's house and had no idea she left the state.
Photo: Flagler County Sheriff's Office