NHTSA report shows Tesla Autopilot led the pack in crashes, but the data has gaps – TechCrunch
TechCrunchSep 09, 2022
US Regulators Cite Tesla Autopilot in Hundreds of Crashes
story
Image copyright: National Transportation Safety Board [via CNBC]
The Facts
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that Teslas were involved in 273 out of 392 total crashes of vehicles using partially automated driver-assist systems from Jul. 2021 to May 2022.
Telsa accounted for 69.6% of reported incidents. Although Telsa calls its systems "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving," it also cautions that the vehicles cannot drive themselves and drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.
The Spin
Narrative A
Tesla is clearly an outlier in terms of automated vehicle health and safety. Car and tech companies insist such technologies save lives, but with more deaths in auto crashes in the last year than in the previous three decades combined, better data is needed before these vehicles can be confirmed to improve road safety.
Narrative B
This is only the first round of data, and any preliminary findings shouldn't be taken out of context. The intent of the report was only to analyze trends in defects, and there will be more updates each month. Let's wait for more information to be collected before we jump to conclusions about Tesla.
