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Tesla Is Under Flack for Autopilot-Related Crashes, Elon Musk Points to Safety Records

Dozens of crashes attributed to faulty Autopilot systems have raised a flag with the regulatory bodies in the U.S. and Europe. In the meantime, Elon Musk complains Tesla doesn’t get rewarded for the lives saved by Autopilot. We turn to safety records to find out how safe is to drive your Tesla vehicle with and without the Autopilot system engaged.
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Photo: Newport Beach Fire Department
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New technologies have always scared regular people, and that is no different with the autonomous driving tech that is developed by Tesla. Even though Tesla has no car with at least Level 3 capability (unlike other carmakers), the company is considered a pioneer of autonomous driving. Perhaps this has to do with the naming of its safety assist package, “Autopilot”.

The name alone doesn’t mean the system can drive by itself, but it sure fools people into believing so. The plethora of videos showing “drivers” taking the back seat, or even taking a nap or watching movies while they were supposed to drive the car is pretty much self-explanatory. No wonder accidents happened and, as it’s often the case with these novel things, people are angry and demand immediate action.

Elon Musk, recently named Time Magazine’s 2021 Person of The Year voiced his frustration in an interview with the magazine. “There's something somebody said to me at the beginning of when we were pursuing autonomy: even if you save 90% of the lives, the 10% that you don't save are going to sue you,” Musk told Time, according to Business Insider.

Musk truly believes Tesla’s self-driving technology is saving lives. The Autopilot and its more advanced iteration Full Self-Driving may have misleading names, but they can monitor the environment and keep the car centered in its lane and separated from other vehicles, greatly enhancing the driver’s capabilities. It does not make the car drive by itself, though, and this is something people tend to forget, causing accidents, argues Musk.

Tesla’s safety reports show Tesla drivers are particularly careful when driving, compared with the bulk of drivers in the U.S. at least. Specifically, Tesla reports for the second quarter of 2021 show one crash happened for every 4.41 million miles driven using Autopilot technology, compared to one crash for every 1.2 million miles of a Tesla car driven without Autopilot. This is measured against NHTSA’s latest data showing there’s an automobile crash every 484,000 miles driven in the U.S.

NHTSA started an investigation this August on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology, after the software allegedly was the cause of at least 11 accidents involving first-responder vehicles, killing one and injuring 17 others. The investigation covers 765,000 cars produced since 2014.
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About the author: Cristian Agatie
Cristian Agatie profile photo

After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions.
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