On November 15, according to technology website TechCrunch, Tesla released the most detailed report on the performance and relative safety of its advanced assisted driving systems to date. Just a few weeks ago, Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana called on companies to release more data at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.
Tesla releases FSD safety report
Tesla announced in a newly opened section on its official website that in North America, car owners using the company's Fully Autonomous Driving (Supervised Version, FSD) system will drive an average of about 5 million miles (approximately 8.05 million kilometers) before a major collision occurs, while the interval between minor collisions is about 1.5 million miles (approximately 2.41 million kilometers).
This accident rate is far lower than the national average data provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). According to Tesla’s interpretation of NHTSA data,Other vehicles in the United States are involved in an average major collision every 699,000 miles (approximately 1.12 million kilometers) and a minor collision every 229,000 miles (approximately 370,000 kilometers).
Tesla has long released quarterly "vehicle safety reports," but those reports have often been criticized for insufficient data. Tesla, meanwhile, has disclosed little safety information about its self-driving taxi test drive program in Austin, Texas, this year. For safety reasons, these test vehicles are still monitored by safety drivers.
Tesla FSD crash rate well below U.S. average
Waymo is currently the leading self-driving taxi company in the United States in terms of the number of vehicles deployed and the scale of customers served. The company has released detailed data showing that its vehicles are approximately five times safer than human drivers and 12 times safer for pedestrians.
At last month's Disrupt technology conference, when asked what other companies were contributing to road safety, Waymo co-CEO Mawakana responded: "I have no way of knowing who is on the list because they have not disclosed fleet operation data." Mawakana did not name Tesla, but he obviously meant something.
non-highway accident
A common criticism of Tesla's quarterly safety report is that its data always focuses on the automatic assisted driving system (Autopilot), which is far less advanced than FSD. Moreover, Autopilot was originally designed for highway scenarios, and highways generally have lower accident rates (including minor collisions).
Now, Tesla has revealed the off-highway performance of FSD. Tesla said that on North American non-highway vehicles, vehicles using the FSD system have an average major collision every 2.9 million miles (approximately 4.67 million kilometers), while NHTSA data shows that other vehicles in the United States will have a major accident every 505,000 miles (approximately 810,000 kilometers). Tesla said FSD users experience an average minor accident every 986,000 miles (1.59 million kilometers), compared with NHTSA's figure of every 178,000 miles (280,000 kilometers).
Moreover, Tesla also announced its definition of these terms for the first time. Tesla adopts the U.S. federal motor vehicle safety standards, specifically 49 C.F.R. § 563.5. Tesla defines a "major crash" as a high-intensity impact that triggers airbags "or other irreversible pyrotechnic protective devices." Tesla also said that if the FSD was activated "at any time" in the five seconds before a collision, the accident would be included in this data set.
"This calculation method ensures that the FSD (supervisory version) accident rate we report not only includes accidents that occur when the system actively controls the vehicle, but also covers scenarios in which the driver takes over the system in advance or the system automatically exits before impact." Tesla said.
In the FAQ section, Tesla stated that it will update data on a quarterly basis and that "the data will roll over the cumulative mileage and number of accidents over the past twelve months to reflect the latest trends and progress." Tesla does not release other information such as casualty rates because all data is currently collected automatically through the vehicles.
"Instead, Tesla focuses on objective, quantifiable metrics such as crash frequency and airbag deployment rate. Airbag deployment is a reliable indicator of crash severity," Tesla said.