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Tesla Shares FSD Beta Safety Statistics Showing the Software Is Worse Than Autopilot

Tesla shares FSD Beta safety statistics 7 photos
Photo: Tesla | Edited
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Tesla has traditionally offered accident statistics for its automated driving systems, showing how much better they are compared to human drivers. Only Autopilot data has been available until now, but Tesla decided to break the mold. For the first time, the EV maker has offered similar data related to the FSD Beta software installed on more than 400,000 cars.

Tesla has published its quarterly safety reports since Q3 2018, but stopped at the end of 2021. This has prompted critics to suspect that Tesla might have something to hide, perhaps because the safety records have been much worse. Previous reports have indicated that Tesla drivers are pretty good drivers, producing far fewer car crashes than the average American driver. Nevertheless, Tesla’s safety records show marked improvement when engaging Autopilot.

Tesla addressed the criticisms and released new safety records in January, including the missing reports from the past year. It explained that it stopped publishing the records in 2022 because the metrics included in the calculations needed to be adjusted to better reflect reality. It went even further and decided to republish all safety records based on the new metrics, showing improvements across the board. This has also been criticized, with some saying that Tesla modified the records to make them look better.

The new statistics show that driving on Autopilot is four times safer than driving a Tesla without it and up to 10X safer than the U.S. average. As you can see, Tesla drivers are already better-than-average drivers. Still, critics weren’t satisfied and claimed that Autopilot statistics are useless because the system is only available on highways. This makes it compare more favorably with the national crash statistics, considering that they also take into account more dangerous roads.

Tesla never released its safety statistics for the FSD Beta software, mainly because the program was limited to a small group of beta testers. Still, with the wider rollout at the end of 2022, up to 400,000 Tesla owners got to test the automated driving software. It’s still a limited number, but Tesla considered it relevant enough to show how safe the FSD Beta software is. During Investor Day, Tesla released the safety statistics related to the FSD Beta use for the first time.

The numbers show that cars with FSD Beta engaged experienced an airbag-deployed crash for every 3.2 million miles traveled in the last 12 months. This is 5X safer than the average American, who usually travels 600,000 miles per police-reported crash. This is the good news. The bad news is that the FSD Beta software is still twice as bad as the Autopilot system. This can be because the FSD Beta works on city streets in sometimes unusual situations, with many drivers around acting unpredictably.

FSD Beta remains one of Tesla’s most controversial features, under scrutiny from several safety regulators. Recently, the NHTSA recommended a recall, which Tesla reluctantly agreed to address via a software update. Until the update is ready, Tesla has paused the deployment of new FSD software versions to users not yet enrolled in the program. This has also delayed the V11.3 release, which unifies Navigate on Autopilot and FSD Beta stacks.

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About the author: Cristian Agatie
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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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