Tesla Q2 Safety Report Shows Reduction In Autopilot Accidents

Autopilot is Tesla Inc's TSLA name for its driver-assist features, with Full Self Driving software bringing even more capabilities to the company's cars.

Although Tesla has had some controversy with the name, it's hard to argue that it's not safe, with the average accident happening much less often when autopilot is active, compared to when autopilot is not active.

Every quarter, Tesla releases a safety report, giving details about how often drivers crash their Tesla. Stats are given for cars with autopilot active, safety features active without autopilot, and no safety features or autopilot active. For the second quarter of 2020, vehicles in all categories had fewer accidents per mile than the same period of 2019.

In the 1st quarter, we registered one accident for every 4.68 million miles driven in which drivers had Autopilot engaged. For those driving without Autopilot but with our active safety features, we registered one accident for every 1.99 million miles driven. For those driving without Autopilot and without our active safety features, we registered one accident for every 1.42 million miles driven. By comparison, NHTSA’s most recent data shows that in the United States there is an automobile crash every 479,000 miles.

Total overall miles and crashes were significantly reduced in this quarter.

Benzinga's Take: While these miles aren't always directly comparable to miles driven by other cars, a reduction of similar metrics year over year is great. This also comes in a quarter where Tesla has released new Full Self Driving features, such as the ability for cars to stop at red lights and stop signs. This means owners are using Autopilot more often, in more challenging scenarios, yet experiencing less accidents.