Featured Tesla Q2 2024 Safety report:

If you look at the chart labeled Deaths and MV rates 1913-2022,

Historical Car Crash Deaths and Rates - Injury Facts

The lowest one was in 2014 at 1.17. When went back to the numbers before the 2010.

 

The whole 2009-2014 span established a new bar for what safety we can achieve.

... then something(s) started breaking. It didn't seem to be the cars themselves, their crash safety tests and scores continued to improve.

... then the Pandemic hit, and things got even worse.

 

Perhaps widespread use of smart phones...while driving

Mike

 

Level 2 ADAS adoption started taking off in that time frame.
A History of ADAS: Emergence to Essential | IDTechEx Research Article
Same with smart phones.
Demographics of Mobile Device Ownership and Adoption in the United States | Pew Research Center

So we have more phones to entice drivers away from driving, and the spread of car features that could enable to do so at the same time.

 

Yes, Tesla is calling the combination of Autosteer (lane holding) and Adaptive Cruise Control, "Autopilot". But when the layman hears "autopilot" he thinks it is an autonomous self-driving automobile.

 

what layman is that? likely a tiny minority of blockheads

 

That is one potential factor. But don't use that as an excuse to quit looking at other potential factors, or to deflect from a sacred cow you may want to protect.

It could very easily be a combination of multiple factors, to different degrees, including some surprising ones we haven't initially considered.

 

Entertainment has given the impression that airplane autopilot is more capable than it is, and that is the source of how it works for most of the public. Supposedly, Tesla engineers didn't want to use the Autopilot name over concerns of that public confusion could lead to issues.

 

I would think that for a car it should be called "autodriver" or "autochauffeur."

 

That could be worse. It is the auto that can give the impression that the car can do more than it can.

 

Maybe "AI-driver" then would give the right impression.

 

And a minority that is screwing it for the rest of us.

 

Usual case with many things.

 

I have had the opportunity to rent 6 Teslas, each for 8-9 days in a row totaling almost 2 months of driving. During this time I tested FSD in many different environments. I have found FSD to be helpful and safe 90 percent of the time. Crappy roads and unmarked roads can cause it to error.. But given the ability it has to aid me in stopping and avoiding a crash I feel the cost is worth it. I plan on buying a used Model Y by the end of this year. The extra $5,000 in price over the life of the car is worth investing in myself. If I smoked I'd spend $2,500 a year on cigs...So yeah it costs more but like window tint helping my eyes and delaying skin cancer....it's worth it for me. FSD continues to improve. it will get better. I will degrade and get worse..I'll take that type of AI based ML for now.

 

That type of mileage in a day is incredible unsafe - not just for you - but for the other families out on the road.

Hope you will reevaluate priorities if not for your own safety - for others safety.

Those comments in your post make one of the best cases I've seen on why Full Self Driving is so dangerous.
You're playing with fire driving like you state in the post.

I hope that post was made to provoke others and not really factual.

 

Hopefully that still hold true for HW3 cars. I'm still waiting for 12.5.x for my 2021 Model 3

Must said in about 10 days... check notes... 12 days ago. Hopefully Musk days aren't week in realtime.

 

Unless you are doing 100mph, your long trips are exceeding commercial trucker and pilot duty limits.

 

Damned by faint praise. Manually driving that is very unsafe.

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I can't help but notice something glaringly absent: any concern for the impact on or safety of others. My dad also shifted significantly in that direction in his twilight years.

Red Herring. The post to which you replied, contained no Ad Hominem.

That used to be such a nice name, for those of us with close Baby Boomer relatives and ancestors christened with it. It is painful to now see it used as a slur, or as Ad Hominem.