When a Tesla car is involved in an accident, it generates a lot of interest, especially if any driver-assist features like Autopilot or Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta are engaged. However, despite the amount of negative press such incidents generate, Tesla cars are actually safer when FSD Beta is activated, according to data revealed by the company at its 2023 Investor Day event.
This marks the first time Tesla has publicly shared FSD Beta collision data. Telemetric data automatically collected from their fleet of vehicles reveals that FSD Beta recorded only one collision for every 3.2 million miles driven in the last 12 months. These are collisions in which there was an airbag deployment.
In comparison, the average American driver had one collision for every 600,000 miles driven on the road. This means you are more than five times less likely to have an accident when you use FSD Beta.
Tesla says FSD Beta is available to about 400,000 customers that paid for FSD in the US and Canada. The EV maker believes autonomous driving will make owners use their Teslas more, making EVs accessible to more people.
Tesla, however, paused the rollout of FSD Beta a few days ago to address concerns by the National Highway Transport Safety Administration and Transport Canada. The agency also blocked Tesla’s attempt to remove the FSD Beta safety nag.
In the last 12 months, a Tesla with FSD Beta engaged experienced an airbag-deployed crash about every 3.2 M miles, which is ~5x safer than the most recently available US average of 0.6M miles/police-reported crash pic.twitter.com/ft4m3Jyq5Q
— Tesla (@Tesla) March 1, 2023
