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I just saw the headline on Google News: “Tesla Has the Highest Fatal Accident Rate of All Auto Brands, Study Finds.” Yikes. I’ve covered how safe Tesla vehicles are for many years. In fact, it was the #1 reason why I bought a Tesla Model 3 in 2019. So, on the one hand, it was surprising to see that headline. But not really.
We already saw last year that one of the reasons Hertz was selling off its Tesla vehicles and not buying more was because they were more likely to get into accidents, and then waiting for repairs/service/parts took longer than average as well. Those kinds of things add up a great deal when you’re managing a big fleet of vehicles.
Are Tesla vehicles actually designed to be unsafe? No, that’s not the issue. The issue is that while Tesla was designing its cars to be extra safe, it was also constantly focusing on making the cars super quick (insanely quick, ludicrously quick, plaid quick) and regularly hyping up how quick its cars were in order to stimulate consumer demand.
Believe it or not, when you’ve consumed all that hype around how quick a Tesla is, it’s easy to be influenced and want to smoke cars off the line at a red light, or just drive like a bat out of hell. The problem is: that leads to accidents, and fast accidents lead to deaths. Let’s get to the shocking stats:
“Tesla’s vehicles have the highest fatal accident rate among all car brands in America, according to a recent iSeeCars study that analyzed data from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).
“The study was conducted on model year 2018–2022 vehicles, and focused on crashes between 2017 and 2022 that resulted in occupant fatalities. Tesla vehicles have a fatal crash rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven, according to the study; Kia is second with a rate of 5.5, and Buick rounds out the top three with a 4.8 rate. The average fatal crash rate for all cars in the United States is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven.”
Those are some damning stats.
Again, I don’t think it’s got anything to do with how safe Tesla cars is. They are designed well with safety in mind. Nonetheless, it’s a rather upsetting thing to find out that the fatality rate in a Tesla is significantly higher than in cars from any other brand. Tesla owners just need to chillax a bit more. And Tesla vehicles are great for relaxing and driving calmly and smoothly — that’s how I normally drive these days!
But if you’ve bought the car because it’s quick, chances are, you’re going to use that powerful torque to routinely make it go quick.
Aside from that most obvious point, there is also a chance that the center touchscreen distracts too much. I haven’t seen any research or stats on this, but I have seen anecdotal statements and experiences along these lines multiple times. But it’s certainly harder to assume this is the issue when the other explanation is so clear and obvious.
Whatever you’re doing out there on the road, stay safe and drive cautiously. And if you want to race your Tesla, take it to a race track once a week. Don’t go acting like a race car driver on a normal road. It’s not worth it.
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