Tesla Autopilot makes electric cars considerably safer per latest Vehicle Safety Report
Tesla takes pride in the fact that its cars like the Model 3 and Model Y consistently rank among the safest vehicles on the road in the US. For instance, the Tesla Model 3 has a five-star safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To further drive home the point that Tesla EVs are safer than your average car, the company has been publishing a Vehicle Safety Report for every quarter since October 2018.
To that end, Tesla has now published the safety report for Q2 2024. The report shows that Tesla EVs beat the national average of “million miles driven before an accident occurs” by a considerable margin. The delta increases to new heights with the Autopilot enabled.
Tesla claims an impressively low Autopilot crash rate for Q2 2024 showing that its electric vehicles were driven close to 7 million miles with Autopilot enabled without any accident. With Autopilot disabled, the crash rate was significantly higher at ~1.5 million miles driven before for a single accident. For comparison, the US national average in this area is less than 1 million miles.
So, it is quite clear that Autopilot makes EVs considerably safer, at least according to the data that Tesla has revealed. However, Autopilot is still not foolproof and the tech comes under regular scrutiny because of reported accidents.
Driver negligence is still an issue for Tesla
It seems that Tesla is always at the receiving end of a new lawsuit regarding crashes caused either by Autopilot or the negligent use of Autopilot. For instance, Reuters reported earlier this month that Tesla has been sued by the parents of a motorcyclist killed by a Model 3 on Autopilot in 2022.
While, according to Tesla’s Vehicle Safety Report, the Autopilot crash rate has declined by a noticeable margin in 2024 vs 2022, the problem of negligent driving still persists. The same Reuters’ report confirmed that a Model S with Full-Self Driving enabled killed a motorcyclist in Seattle in April 2024. The driver reportedly admitted to being distracted when the Model S was in the FSD mode.
So, even if we take Tesla’s word at face value that its Autopilot increases vehicle safety, the company still has a lot to do to dispel concerns regarding distracted driving.
