djwildstar
Well-known member
- First Name
- Guy
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2023
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 298
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- 421
- Location
- Atlanta, GA
- Vehicles
- 2023 Lightning Lariat ER, 2023 Mach-E GTPE
- Occupation
- Information Security
Yes -- Tesla vehicles do get excellent safety ratings. However, in late 2024 iSeeCars used data from the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System to compute fatalities per billion vehicle-miles. At that time the most-recent data covered through the end of 2022.is that a fact? their cars get excellent safety ratings.
Looking at carmakers, Tesla had the most fatal accidents, 5.6 per billion vehicle-miles. The rest of the top 5 are Kia (5.5), Buick (4.8), Dodge (4.4), and Hyundai (3.9). The overall average for carmakers in the US market is 2.8.
This rate - fatalities per billion vehicle-miles - is an arguably "fair" metric of how dangerous a given vehicle is to actually drive. The report explicitly points out that many of these vehicles have excellent safety ratings, and that the reported fatality rates are likley a combination of vehicle size, driver behavior, and driving conditions. For example, performance sports cars represented by the Chevy Corvette, Mitsubishi Mirage, and Porsche 911 are all in the top-5 most-dangerous models. Small, lightweight, and inexpensive vehicles are represented by the Hyundai Venture (in the #1 most-fatal spot) and Honda CR-V hybrid (#5). The Tesla Model Y hit the #6 slot.
In the case of Tesla, I suspect that it is a combination of multiple factors. Most Tesla vehicles are small, and also perform significantly better than comparable vehicles. Tesla sells very few large vehicles, which will tend to skew their fleet fatality rates higher like it does for Kia and Hyundai. It is also possible that Tesla's driver assistance systems are partially to blame. Finally, the small size of Tesla's fleet (under 2 million) means that a relative few fatal accidents will significantly raise the fleet average.
I'd be interested in seeing what the numbers look like with 2024 and 2025 data in them.
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