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I'm not surprised. Tesla's Model S replaced Toyota's Prius as the eco-conscious high-tech status symbol vehicle to own. Owner surveys show a lot of people came

I'm not surprised. Tesla's Model S replaced Toyota's Prius as the eco-conscious high-tech status symbol vehicle to own. Owner surveys show a lot of people came over to Tesla from ordinary cars rather than from other luxury cars or muscle cars. Someone coming from a compact hybrid that does 0-60 in 11 seconds, to a huge sports car that does it in 2.5 seconds, is probably more likely than the average driver to get into an accident.

newnewpdro 9y ago
Clearly the vast majority of Teslas on the road are P100Ds in ludicrous mode 100% of the time. If memory serves the average model S is more like 5 seconds 0-60, which is quick but there's a _world_ of difference separating 2.5s from 5s 0-60.
greglindahl 9y ago
I've been to a talk by the Progressive guy with all of their data, and he says the only strong predictor of accidents is sharp braking. Not acceleration. Do you have any data points to offer?
- deleted 9y ago
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- mdorazio 9y ago
  I don't have actual statistics I can share, but work in the automotive industry and have talked fairly extensively with insurance companies about data sharing as part of usage based insurance. There are actually multiple predictors of accident-prone drivers. Sharp braking is one, but so are frequent lane changes, insufficient following distance, and abrupt speed increases. Distracted driving is a bigger issue than all of these, but is very hard to actually detect as a first-order effect with current cabin sensors.
jd20 9y ago
I'm really skeptical of this theory being pushed in the article, without further data to back it up. Maybe the Model S has a higher claim frequency because its owners would be more nitpicky of their $100k+ car, than a $30k Leaf? Shouldn't there be other data showing that performance of luxury cars also leads to higher frequency claims? Personally, I see a lot of Tesla's on the road every day, and the people who were used to driving a Prius or minivan, seem to drive their Tesla in pretty much the same manner.
- Fins 9y ago
  While one could argue that Tesla drivers are, indeed, less picky than people who paid $60K+ for a real luxury car (if they were equally picky, one look at Tesla's build quality and they'd be off to a BMW dealership or something)... But really, if we are talking about people driving 100K cars, we have to compare them with people driving other expensive cars, not a driver of a second-hand Leaf.

newnewpdro 9y ago

Clearly the vast majority of Teslas on the road are P100Ds in ludicrous mode 100% of the time. If memory serves the average model S is more like 5 seconds 0-60, which is quick but there's a _world_ of difference separating 2.5s from 5s 0-60.

greglindahl 9y ago

I've been to a talk by the Progressive guy with all of their data, and he says the only strong predictor of accidents is sharp braking. Not acceleration. Do you have any data points to offer?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
mdorazio 9y ago
I don't have actual statistics I can share, but work in the automotive industry and have talked fairly extensively with insurance companies about data sharing as part of usage based insurance. There are actually multiple predictors of accident-prone drivers. Sharp braking is one, but so are frequent lane changes, insufficient following distance, and abrupt speed increases. Distracted driving is a bigger issue than all of these, but is very hard to actually detect as a first-order effect with current cabin sensors.

jd20 9y ago

I'm really skeptical of this theory being pushed in the article, without further data to back it up. Maybe the Model S has a higher claim frequency because its owners would be more nitpicky of their $100k+ car, than a $30k Leaf? Shouldn't there be other data showing that performance of luxury cars also leads to higher frequency claims? Personally, I see a lot of Tesla's on the road every day, and the people who were used to driving a Prius or minivan, seem to drive their Tesla in pretty much the same manner.

Fins 9y ago
While one could argue that Tesla drivers are, indeed, less picky than people who paid $60K+ for a real luxury car (if they were equally picky, one look at Tesla's build quality and they'd be off to a BMW dealership or something)... But really, if we are talking about people driving 100K cars, we have to compare them with people driving other expensive cars, not a driver of a second-hand Leaf.