Tesla has published their latest Vehicle Safety Report for the fourth quarter of 2022. The voluntary report uses real-world data from Tesla’s fleet of vehicles to outline how many crashes occur per 1 million miles driven with their Autopilot technology engaged, compared against how many crashes there are when not using Autopilot technology, and against all other cars.
According to the latest data Tesla cars driven with Autopilot engaged are still far safer than human drivers. In the final three months of last year there was one crash recorded for every 4.85 million miles with Autopilot engaged. That compares to one crash every 652,000 miles for all other cars, based on the most recent data available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), last updated in 2021.
It is not just Autopilot that makes Tesla vehicles safer, but also its passive safety features that make it more than two times safer than other cars even when Autopilot is not engaged, with one crash every 1.40 million miles.
The Q4 2022 data is lower than Q3 2022, when Tesla recorded one crash every 6.26 million miles with Autopilot. However it is above the same period last year when there was one crash every 4.35 million miles in Q4 2021. Historically the fourth quarter of every year is the lowest, and this can largely be attributed seasonality as there is reduced daylight and inclement weather conditions during this time of the year.
Tesla appears to be back to publishing these reports quarterly. It has done so for several years until the end of 2021 when they suddenly stopped without explanation. They restarted in January 2023 explaining they were recalculating their stats after adjusting which metrics were included.
You can read the full Tesla Safety Report here.
