BRANSON, MISSOURI — A man from Branson, Missouri says his Tesla Model X helped save his life.
Joshua Neally is a Springfield lawyer who lives in Branson.
Every day, he commutes up highway 65. He just bought this high-tech car a couple weeks ago.
"It's the ultimate gadget," says Neally, "It's the coolest technology I've ever seen I would say, let alone owned."
Josh likes to show off what's under the hood... another trunk. There's no gas engine, it's all electric. Full of cool tricks and features, like the cutting-edge Autopilot feature. "I would characterize it as the ultimate cruise control," says Neally.
It's not an autonomous car, but it will stay in its lane, maintain speed, even brake. Demonstrating the feature, Neally says "it's managing the turns and just every few minutes I have to touch the wheel and put just a little resistance on there and it's going to continue to drive."
Designed to avoid accidents, it's a controversial feature. Some people don't trust "robots" behind the wheel.
In May, a man driving a Tesla on Autopilot was killed after a much-publicized crash in Florida. It cast doubt on the capabilities of the technology. But just a week after Neally bought his space ship on wheels, he was in the middle of his commute home when he felt a sudden pain.
"A little past Highlandville, it just hit where it was the most excruciating pain I've ever had," says Neally.
He didn't realize he was having a pulmonary embolism. It could have killed him.
"It was kinda getting scary. I called my wife and just said something's wrong and I couldn't breathe, I was gasping, kind of hyperventilating." Neally, writhing in pain, wasn't able to drive but says: "I just knew I had to get there, to the ER."
So he trusted the self-driving Tesla to stay on the road until it got near a hospital.
Neally was able to drive himself the last couple of blocks to the ER.
The Tesla may have saved his life, by allowing him to get to the emergency room instead of having to pull over and wait for an ambulance. Now his story is being seen as a counter-example to that fatal Florida crash.
"If something like that happens where I become unconscious or incapacitated while I'm driving, I'm not going to cross over the interstate and slam into somebody or slam into one of the big rock walls," says Neally.
He loves his new car and thinks self-driving features could save more lives. "It's not going to be perfect, there's no technology that's perfect," says Neally, 'but I think the measure is that it's better and safer."
Doctors say he was lucky to survive the pulmonary embolism while driving.
Tesla claims their Autopilot feature can prevent many accidents caused by driver who become incapacitated or inattentive.