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"With a track record of zero deaths or serious, permanent injuries since our vehicles went into production six years ago, there is no safer car on the road than

"With a track record of zero deaths or serious, permanent injuries since our vehicles went into production six years ago, there is no safer car on the road than a Tesla." I don't doubt that the Tesla Model S is a very safe car as tests have shown. With that said, how many deaths and serious injuries would have been expected considering the same number of miles driven with normal cars? Are Teslas actually substantially safer than other cars or are there just few enough out there that no serious injuries have happened?

unphasable 13y ago
food for thought: http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-model-s-achieves-best-safety-rating-any-car-ever-tested http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-model-...
veidr 13y ago
Yes, they actually are in the 99th percentile of safety among all cars ever tested in the USA (per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). So it's not just that most ppl 2 po'.
- symmetricsaurus 13y ago
  What I actually want to know is if you had the same number of other average cars driving the same distance as the Teslas, how many people could you expect to be killed in these cars. Here is my crude estimation. If we consider that there are 3.2 * 10^-4 people killed in traffic per car per year[1] and that there are 20000 Tesla Model S on the road[2], then we get that there should have been about 6 deaths. Now most of the Teslas have not been on the road for a whole year probably so I'm not sure how valid this estimation is. This seems to be some indication that zero deaths is very low for this number of cars but to be sure I think one would need to make a more detailed estimate. Doing some statistical analysis would also be good. [1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=traffic+deaths+per+car+in+the+us https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=traffic+deaths+per+car... [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S
  - revelation 13y ago
    Thats a terrible metric if you consider that some cars cost more to insure not because of the vehicle or make but simply because of the kind of people that tend to drive it.
    - symmetricsaurus 13y ago
      Of course, that's why I said it was a crude estimate. On the other hand, since the Tesla S is a quite high performance car, you could expect it to get into more accidents than the average car.

unphasable 13y ago

food for thought: http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-model-s-achieves-best-safety-rating-any-car-ever-tested http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-model-...

veidr 13y ago

Yes, they actually are in the 99th percentile of safety among all cars ever tested in the USA (per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). So it's not just that most ppl 2 po'.

symmetricsaurus 13y ago
What I actually want to know is if you had the same number of other average cars driving the same distance as the Teslas, how many people could you expect to be killed in these cars. Here is my crude estimation. If we consider that there are 3.2 * 10^-4 people killed in traffic per car per year[1] and that there are 20000 Tesla Model S on the road[2], then we get that there should have been about 6 deaths. Now most of the Teslas have not been on the road for a whole year probably so I'm not sure how valid this estimation is. This seems to be some indication that zero deaths is very low for this number of cars but to be sure I think one would need to make a more detailed estimate. Doing some statistical analysis would also be good. [1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=traffic+deaths+per+car+in+the+us https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=traffic+deaths+per+car... [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S
- revelation 13y ago
  Thats a terrible metric if you consider that some cars cost more to insure not because of the vehicle or make but simply because of the kind of people that tend to drive it.
  - symmetricsaurus 13y ago
    Of course, that's why I said it was a crude estimate. On the other hand, since the Tesla S is a quite high performance car, you could expect it to get into more accidents than the average car.