Rescue workers proceed with caution around the spot where a Tesla slammed into a tree in Baarn, ... [+]
Tesla drivers are the most accident-prone, according to a LendingTree analysis of 30 car brands. It found that Tesla drivers are involved in more accidents than drivers of any other brand. Tesla drivers had 23.54 accidents per 1,000 drivers. Ram (22.76) and Subaru (20.90) were the only other brands with more than 20 accidents per 1,000 drivers for every brand.
This was not a causal study; the study did not analyze the reason for an incident. But it comes amid news that Tesla recently recalled more than 2 million Tesla vehicles over a safety issue related to its Autopilot software — specifically, a feature called Autosteer, which is part of the driver-assistance system. The recall affects nearly all the cars Tesla has sold in the United States.
Tesla, the electronic car manufacturer, is the world’s most valuable automotive company. It is led by Elon Musk, the richest man in the world. He has long envisioned cars that are fully self-driving and has been pushing the envelope on this technology.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statement says that, "in certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature's controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse of the … advanced driver-assistance feature."
The recall is aimed at fixing the system that is supposed to ensure drivers are paying attention when they use Autopilot. Tesla's auto-driving feature doesn't just take over and let the person in the driver's seat read a book or take a nap. The driver must be prepared to intervene if an issue arises that the feature can't handle.
Some people rely too heavily on the feature, and accidents occur. The Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation over a year ago after more than a dozen crashes happened while Tesla's Autopilot software was engaged. The NHTSA reviewed 956 crashes for which Autopilot was alleged to have been in use. The agency then focused on 322 Autopilot-related accidents that included frontal collisions and collisions from potential unintended disengagement of the system.
The Washington Post reports that the recall — the largest in Tesla’s 20-year history — drew condemnation from experts. They argue that the new warnings and alerts are unlikely to solve Autopilot’s fundamental flaw: that Tesla fails to limit where drivers can turn it on in the first place.
“What a missed opportunity,” said Matthew Wansley, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York. “I have yet to see Tesla, or anyone defending Tesla, come up with an argument for why we should be letting people use [Autopilot] on roads that could have cross traffic. That’s how a lot of these crashes are happening.”
LendingTree, an online lending marketplace, allows for the collection of a great deal of data. Researchers analyzed tens of millions of QuoteWizard by LendingTree insurance quotes from November 14, 2022, through November 14, 2023.
