According to new study, Tesla has highest rate of driver fatalities in the US.
This is despite the study also assuring readers that Tesla vehicles aren’t specifically unsafe and the company isn’t shipping “design flaws”. The higher statistic could be as simple as a Tesla feature, like the controversial “Full Self Driving”, giving drivers a false sense of security. The US National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration is investigating FSD’s safety, for now at least.
The study from iSeeCars analyses data from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). Via Road & Track:
The study was conducted on model year 2018–2022 vehicles, and focused on crashes between 2017 and 2022 that resulted in occupant fatalities. Tesla vehicles have a fatal crash rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven, according to the study; Kia is second with a rate of 5.5, and Buick rounds out the top three with a 4.8 rate. The average fatal crash rate for all cars in the United States is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven.
It’ll be exciting to see how Elon Musk brings this kind of efficiency to the US government. He should probably get cracking on improving FSD if he’s still worried about birth rates declining.
