Tesla has updated their Safety Score tool with the release of Safety Score Version 2.0. The update includes two new Safety Factors and changes to how your driving behaviour is measured in an attempt to improve on the previous version 1.2, which garnered much criticism from owners.
Late last year Tesla updated Safety Score to v1.2, with the biggest change being the addition of a new ‘Late Night Driving’ metric. This metric was intended to account for the statistics that show late night driving is more dangerous due to things like reduced visibility, distractions, and drowsiness. Tesla considered “late night” to be between 10:00pm and 4:00am, with many owners enrolled in Tesla Insurance saying the relatively early start time unfairly penalized them, resulting in a lower Safety Score and as a result a higher monthly premium.
Tesla appears to have listened to that feedback, and with v2.0 this metric now takes into account how much time you spend driving in each late night hour. The end result is a lower impact on your Safety Score earlier in the night and an increased impact later into the next morning.
“Updated Late Night Driving to be risk weighted based on when you are driving from 10 PM – 4 AM. The impact of late night driving on your Safety Score will depend on the proportion of time spent driving in each hour from 10 PM – 4 AM. The impact on your Safety Score is now reduced earlier in the night and increased later in the night,” Tesla explains.
There are also two new metrics, one to account for excessive speeding (over 85mph) and another for driving with your seatbelt unbuckled at speeds above 10mph.
- Added Excessive Speeding as a new Safety Factor. More time spent driving over 85 mph will lead to a lower Safety Score.
- Added Unbuckled Driving as a new Safety Factor. Time spent driving over 10 mph without buckling the driver’s seatbelt will lead to a lower Safety Score.
The final change with Safety Score v2.0 is an update to the Hard Braking formula. A common criticism of this metric was that it encouraged driving through yellow traffic lights to avoid an impact on your Safety Score. Now Tesla will exclude braking events when the car detects a yellow light.
Tesla’s Safety Score is only available to those enrolled in Tesla Insurance, which is currently available in 12 states. Since regulations in California don’t allow for insurance rates to be based on real-time driving behaviours, the Safety Score is provided for educational purposes only.
Elon Musk has agreed to providing the Safety Score tool to all owners for educational purposes, but we have yet to see it be added to the mobile app since he said yes in January last year.
