The crash while using the Autopilot feature by Joshua Brown is tragic and certainly a hardship on his family and friends, but it’s hardly the crash that broke the proverbial camel’s back. If nothing else this crash should be a warning to other owners of Tesla vehicles to keep their attention and alertness on the road even when the car is doing the driving for you. Aside from this fatal crash there are some numbers we should pay attention to which might just amaze you when it comes to the overall safety of more than just the cars produced by Tesla.
First of all, let’s look at how safety has been improved over the past twenty years. While many of us will say drivers today are more distracted than ever, and that certainly seems to be the case when you see the number of drivers handling their smartphone while driving, the safety of our vehicles is much better than it was twenty years ago. In 1994 the fatality rate was 1.73 deaths per 100 million miles driven in the US. That may seem like a low number, but considering the number of drivers we have and the distance many will go to work each day that’s nearly two people per 100 million miles which is easy enough for us to rack up in less than a day of driving in this country.
For 2014 the fatality rage had dropped considerably. This number was at 1.08 fatalities per 100 million miles driven, which is just a little over one person. This is at a time when we all have smartphones and distracted driving has become something we have taken a serious look at as a problem that needs to be solved. This proves to us that not only are our cars much safer than they were before, the distraction of our phones is not having a significant negative impact upon our driving and survival rate in collisions.
Looking toward the Tesla products the amazing number you’ll find is even better. For Tesla the number is only 0.76 fatalities per 100 million miles driven. That’s better than most other countries that have much stricter driving laws than we have here. This brings up the question of whether or not Tesla drivers are just more skilled than the rest of us or is there something else at play, keeping these drivers safer?
The answer is pretty simple; the Autopilot function of the Tesla vehicles does work. It works the way it’s designed to and is not an autonomous system by any means. Tesla has vehemently informed us this is a semiautonomous system, not one that is meant to take over the driving completely. It’s important for us to remember driving with any semiautonomous system means staying alert and keeping our attention on the road. The fact that Tesla models have such a high safety rating and don’t use any gasoline means we should celebrate what Tesla is, especially as they prepare to give us the Model 3 as an affordable alternative to the luxury models already in place.