Tesla leads in ADAS crashes, gig companies lose battle in MA

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The Station: Tesla leads in ADAS crashes, gig companies lose battle in MA

Rebecca Bellan

Mon, June 20, 2022, 8:30 PM·10 min read

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive it every weekend in your inbox.

Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.

Your usual host, Kirsten Korosec, is off the grid and hopefully having a fabulous vacation, so I’ll be taking over the newsletter this week. Up first: NHTSA’s report on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a Standing General Order last June requiring all automakers to report their most serious crashes that involved Level 2 ADAS -- this level needs a human driver to be fully engaged in the driving task, even though some functions are automated. The findings of that order came out this week, and it’s not looking good for Tesla.

Tesla’s EVs were involved in 70% of the reported crashes. In total, Tesla reported 273 crashes, three with serious injuries and five deaths. Most other automakers reported only a handful of crashes.

It might look like Tesla’s ADAS is a bit of a liability, but, as Mark Harris reports, it’s more complicated than just those numbers. For starters, there are more ADAS-equipped Teslas on the road than other vehicles, which would account for higher numbers of accidents. In addition, Tesla’s Autopilot can be used in city and suburban environments, whereas others like Nissan’s ProPilot and GM’s SuperCruise are limited to highways.

NHTSA’s order also asked manufacturers to report all incidents they knew about. Most automakers rely on consumer complaints, law enforcement contacts or media articles to get their crash numbers, but Tesla knows exactly which vehicles used Autopilot when they crashed because its cars are connected and automatically report vehicle data when a crash occurs.

We’re not saying Tesla’s ADAS isn’t dangerous. We’re just saying it’s hard to know just how dangerous in comparison to other automakers, given the above factors.