TEMECULA, California – A woman behind the wheel of a Tesla was filmed seemingly fast asleep as her car travelled along a Southern California highway.

The 41-second clip shows the woman in the driver’s seat slumped to the right as someone off-camera criticises her behaviour.

Passenger Vasiliki Dolas, who was filming the video in a car travelling alongside the Tesla, said: “We are on a freeway in California where it is bumper-to-bumper (traffic)... She is out, sleeping, completely knocked out. And this car is driving her. Look at how dangerous that is.”

Ms Dolas told Los Angeles television station KTLA that she and her partner were driving home from Las Vegas when they spotted the driver at around 4pm on the 15 Freeway near Temecula.

She said: “My partner was getting ready to change lanes and he was like, ‘I think she’s sleeping’, and I said ‘Who?’ And I looked over immediately.

“As soon as I said that, the car actually sped off ahead of us. I just said, ‘Please hurry, please hurry’.”

Ms Dolas said they spent 15 minutes trying to rouse the motorist by honking repeatedly before calling 911.

California Highway Patrol officials said they tracked down the Tesla about two minutes after responding to the scene and found the driver awake, KTLA reported.

In December 2022, a driver of a 2021 Tesla Model S involved in an eight-vehicle crash on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge told the authorities that the vehicle was in “full self-driving mode” when it malfunctioned, resulting in the accident.

Tesla is already facing multiple investigations by the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration arising from crashes related to its autopilot capabilities.

Since 2016, the administration has opened more than three dozen Tesla special crash investigations where advanced driver assistance systems were suspected of being involved in 19 crash deaths, Reuters reported.