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Someothing I don't understand about the press coverage about Tesla Autopilor/FSD is the ommission of what (to me) is the single most important metric of Autopil

Someothing I don't understand about the press coverage about Tesla Autopilor/FSD is the ommission of what (to me) is the single most important metric of Autopilot's relative safety: the number of accidents per unit mile driven, with and without Autopilot. I'm not saying this is the only number that matters, but that it's the one that matters the most. right? Tesla voluntarily releases quartely safety data[0], and yet I literally cannot find a news article that mentions it in the first page Google results for "tesla autopilot safety." [1][2][3][4]. What am I missing? Isn't this the most important metric to report to the public in any discussion of Autopilot's safety? [0] https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport [1] https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-09-02/safety-regulators-put-tesla-autopilot https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-09-02/safety-reg... [2] https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/19/22682272/ntsb-official-tesla-safety-elon-musk-full-self-driving https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/19/22682272/ntsb-official-te... [3] https://gizmodo.com/teslas-expanding-its-full-self-driving-beta-but-top-sa-1847705438 https://gizmodo.com/teslas-expanding-its-full-self-driving-b... [4] https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/life-death-question-regulators-is-teslas-autopilot-safe-2021-09-21/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/life-d...

kevincox 5y ago
The first thing that jumps out at me about that number is that it doesn't appear to account for the type of road. If I had to guess most people driving down the highway use "Autopilot" while less use it in city driving. Since the highway is safer this likely skews the numbers significantly. Basically the situations where "Autopilot" may be used and is used is likely already situations where accidents are less likely.
- davidatbu 5y ago
  Yes, I'm sure that breaking it down by road type, or by driving skill ( as measured by number of driving infractions before buying Tesla), ..etc would be even better. But that, to me, doesn't change the fact that the currently released metric is still absolutely necessary to report in any news article, with all of its caveats.

kevincox 5y ago

The first thing that jumps out at me about that number is that it doesn't appear to account for the type of road. If I had to guess most people driving down the highway use "Autopilot" while less use it in city driving. Since the highway is safer this likely skews the numbers significantly. Basically the situations where "Autopilot" may be used and is used is likely already situations where accidents are less likely.

davidatbu 5y ago
Yes, I'm sure that breaking it down by road type, or by driving skill ( as measured by number of driving infractions before buying Tesla), ..etc would be even better. But that, to me, doesn't change the fact that the currently released metric is still absolutely necessary to report in any news article, with all of its caveats.