Telsa Says Autopilot Is 6 Times Safer Than A Human Driver - What Does That Say About YOUR Driving?

Tesla has updated its quarterly safety report to include fleet-wide accident data from the first quarter of 2019. The report, which is meant to promote transparency and convey confidence in its semi-autonomous Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), Autopilot, shows a slight increase in the frequency of Autopilot-related crashes when compared to the previous quarter, and a significant decrease in the frequency of accidents which occurred while vehicles were traditionally operated by humans.

"In the first quarter, we registered one accident for every 2.87 million miles driven in which drivers had Autopilot engaged," Tesla wrote in the report. "For those driving without Autopilot, we registered one accident for every 1.76 million miles driven. By comparison, NHTSA’s most recent data shows that in the United States there is an automobile crash every 436,000 miles."

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skytop - 4/10/2019 1:03:51 PM

+8 Boost

That is about what the pilot of the doomed 737 max jetliner said to his passengers.

PUGPROUD - 4/10/2019 1:28:55 PM

+10 Boost

Great way to build a business by telling your customers they are not as competent as your unproven product that has killed people.

Truthy - 4/10/2019 1:34:23 PM

+9 Boost

Which drivers are they comparing it to? This is a blanket statement that cannot be verified.

qwertyfla1 - 4/10/2019 3:27:53 PM

+8 Boost

What else do you expect from PT Barnum?

Truthy - 4/10/2019 3:41:25 PM

+6 Boost

Seriously, there is no explanation of the varibles. If most Tesla use autopilot on the highway, well, most accidents are not on the highway. What is the sample size? Is this all cars on the road regardless of age or skill of the driver versus the thousands of Tesla drivers? This is complete pushing an EV narrative.

SanJoseDriver - 4/10/2019 8:52:58 PM

-5 Boost

Autopilot works on almost any street now. Will be interesting to see the stats next quarter with this latest update (lane changes with no confirmation). It's surprisingly good at this point but I can see people taking more risks because of that.

TomM - 4/10/2019 6:25:46 PM

+8 Boost

On what basis does Tesla determine what an average human driver does?

I want to see the ACTUAL Data of the Independent report - along with any other polling material used in the study


And of course - if the study comes from DT, we can assume it is FAKE NEWS

SanJoseDriver - 4/11/2019 12:16:01 AM

-4 Boost

I would like to see a new independent report as well.

One slightly reassuring fact is that Tesla posted what I interpret as a bad quarter. Average accident rates went up maybe due to the winter. Autopilot accidents went up. Tesla drivers not using Autopilot had fewer accidents than the previous quarter. That means that the Autopilot safety improvement over not using Autopilot was worse than the previous quarter--they reported the data anyway.

My guess is that they released a lot of new functionality in the last 3 months and people were pushing their luck a little too hard. Ex: there is a new warning if you are about to run a red light so drivers were running red lights to test it. Obviously not a great idea.

senft - 4/12/2019 4:45:15 PM

+1 Boost

I’d love to know how Teslas compare to its peers, to wit, luxury marques as opposed to all drivers from all demographics.