Tesla says its cars are among the safest in the world. They have advanced safety features, but their Autopilot and Full-Self Driving systems have been in many accidents. New data from Tesla suggests their cars are safer than others in the United States.
Tesla measures safety by how many miles a car travels before an accident. In the first quarter of 2024, Tesla cars without Autopilot had one crash for every 955,000 miles driven. But cars with Autopilot only had one crash for every 7.63 million miles driven. The average for all cars in the United States is one crash for every 670,000 miles.
The worst time for Tesla cars with Autopilot was in the fourth quarter of 2019, with one crash for every 3.11 million miles driven. But even then, it was better than the average car in the USA between the third quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2024.
Autopilot has its benefits, especially on highways and long-distance roads. But Tesla doesn’t recommend using it in city driving.
Electric cars are often thought to be more likely to catch fire than gasoline cars. However, Tesla’s data shows that between 2012 and 2022, Tesla cars had one fire for every 130 million miles driven. In comparison, the average for all cars in the United States is one fire for every 18 million miles driven.
It would be interesting to see how Tesla compares to other car brands, not just the average of all cars in the US. Brands like Mercedes-Benz and Volvo might have similar safety records.
