Photo: IIHS
Despite all the high-profile Tesla crashes that the media doesn’t get enough writing about, records show that Tesla Autopilot is incredibly safe, and improving by the month. Tesla’s 2021 Impact Report released Friday shows that its cars driving with Autopilot on are eight times less likely to crash than the average American automobile.
There are many critics of the Autopilot driving assistance system, especially about the way it was implemented in Tesla vehicles. Some people and even regulatory bodies like the IIHS ask for more safety checks to prevent drivers from abusing the system, which often leads to crashes. Often those crashes gain undeserved prominence in the media, distorting the perception about the overall safety of Tesla vehicles.
This is something Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has complained about in the past. “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 confessed to Time Magazine last December. “I think it's one of those things where you're not going to get rewarded necessarily for the lives that you save, but you will definitely be blamed for lives that you don't save.”
The 2021 Impact Report confirms that Tesla vehicles are indeed safer when running on Autopilot. In 2021, Tesla vehicles recorded 0.22 crashes per one million miles driven when using Autopilot features, and 0.77 crashes without Autopilot engaged. This equals one crash every 4.55 million miles with and one crash every 1.3 million miles without Autopilot on. Either way, this is significantly better than the average U.S. crash data reported by NHTSA.
“In 2021, we recorded 0.22 crashes for every million miles driven in which drivers were using Autopilot technology (Autosteer and active safety features),” writes the report. “For drivers who were not using Autopilot technology (no Autosteer and active safety features), we recorded 0.77 crashes for every million miles driven. By comparison, NHTSA’s most recent data shows that in the United States there are 1.81 automobile crashes for every million miles driven.”
Not to be confused with Tesla Full Self-Driving, the Autopilot is a driving assistance package designed to assist the drivers rather than replace them. Navigate On Autopilot, Autosteer, and Smart Summon are all part of the Autopilot suite.
This is something Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has complained about in the past. “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 confessed to Time Magazine last December. “I think it's one of those things where you're not going to get rewarded necessarily for the lives that you save, but you will definitely be blamed for lives that you don't save.”
The 2021 Impact Report confirms that Tesla vehicles are indeed safer when running on Autopilot. In 2021, Tesla vehicles recorded 0.22 crashes per one million miles driven when using Autopilot features, and 0.77 crashes without Autopilot engaged. This equals one crash every 4.55 million miles with and one crash every 1.3 million miles without Autopilot on. Either way, this is significantly better than the average U.S. crash data reported by NHTSA.
“In 2021, we recorded 0.22 crashes for every million miles driven in which drivers were using Autopilot technology (Autosteer and active safety features),” writes the report. “For drivers who were not using Autopilot technology (no Autosteer and active safety features), we recorded 0.77 crashes for every million miles driven. By comparison, NHTSA’s most recent data shows that in the United States there are 1.81 automobile crashes for every million miles driven.”
Not to be confused with Tesla Full Self-Driving, the Autopilot is a driving assistance package designed to assist the drivers rather than replace them. Navigate On Autopilot, Autosteer, and Smart Summon are all part of the Autopilot suite.
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