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Note: Tesla is comparing the fatality rate of autopilot-equipped cars with the average accident rate. They are NOT only counting miles where autopilot is used,
by URSpider94 9y ago
Note: Tesla is comparing the fatality rate of autopilot-equipped cars with the average accident rate. They are NOT only counting miles where autopilot is used, they are counting all miles driven by their cars. It could be that Tesla drivers are inherently safer than the general population, or that the cars themselves are much safer. What they are not doing (at least with the data) is making a statistical claim about autopilot safety.
- kohanz 9y agoExactly. Tesla drivers will be older, more affluent, and I bet, generally safer drivers. I'm sure an insurance company could easily debunk those statistics.
- oldgradstudent 9y agoThat's a very good point. But it raises a new question, why didn't Tesla compare the safety record of Teslas with Autopilot against Teslas without Autopilot.
- URSpider94 9y agoI don’t know. It could be because the comparison isn’t favorable, or it could be because it’s very hard (as your parent post states) to generate a valid comparison that controls for driver age and skill, driving conditions, and vehicle safety. What I do know is that Tesla have previously published a comparison of the safety of their cars before and after the autopilot feature was made available, and there is a statistically significant improvement of nearly 60%. This study should factor out most of those caveats, since it’s the same cars, same drivers and same roads before and after the feature release. http://bgr.com/2017/01/19/tesla-autopilot-crash-safety-statistics-report-nhtsa/ http://bgr.com/2017/01/19/tesla-autopilot-crash-safety-stati...
- ricardobeat 9y agoThey have done so. As mentioned in their previous blog post, Tesla's crash rate was reduced by 40% after introduction of Autopilot based on data reviewed by NHTSA.