Teslvehicles have accounted for nearly 70% of reported crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems since last June, according to federal figures released Wednesday. But officials warned the data is incomplete and isn’t meant to indicate which carmaker’s systems might be safest.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the first-of-its-kind data doesn’t yet have proper context and is only meant to be a guide to quickly identify potential defect trends and help determine whether the systems are improving the safety of vehicles.
According to the data, Tesla cars represented 273 accidents involving its advanced driver-assist systems since companies were required to start reporting the incidents roughly a year ago. That’s out of 392 crashes reported overall by 11 automakers and one supplier from June 2021 through May 15.
Honda was second with 90 reported accidents, followed by Subaru at 10 and Ford Motor at five. All other companies reported four or fewer accidents, including Toyota at four, BMW at three and General Motors at two.
The data release is the first since the government began mandating in June 2021 that companies report incidents involving “Level 2” advanced driver-assist systems, which are meant to help an attentive driver but not replace them. They include Tesla’s systems such as Autopilot and GM’s Super Cruise.
mpting to draw conclusions based only on the data that we’re releasing. In fact, the data alone may raise more questions than they answer,” NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said during a mediahe systems can control many of a vehicle’s driving functions such as steering, lane-centering, braking and acceleration. Some automakers including GM only allow the systems to be used on designated highways. Tesla and others allow for broader use, including on local streets.
While Tesla cars with the company’s Autopilot technology had the most accidents, it’s believed the automaker also has the most number of vehicles with such systems on the road. Its systems also tend to offer greater capabilities and are allowed to operate in more areas than other systems.
Tesla’s systems are marketed under the brand names Autopilot, Full Self Driving and Full Self Driving Beta in the U.S.
Tesla’s celebrity CEO, Elon Musk, recently on Twitter said that the company’s latest version of FSD Beta would be rolling out to 100,000 cars. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The data does not take into context factors such as the number of vehicles automakers have made, the number of vehicles they have on the road or the distances traveled by those vehicles. When and how much data companies provided also varies, meaning much of it is incomplete.
For example, crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems have resulted in at least six fatalities and five serious injuries, according to the data. However, whether there were injuries in a majority of the crashes – 294 of them – is unknown, meaning there are likely more.
“This is an unprecedented effort to gather nearly real time safety data involving these advanced technologies,” Cliff said. “Understanding the story that the data tell will take time as most of NHTSA’s work does but it’s a story we need to hear.”
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