Tesla answers Waymo CEO's FSD comments with safety report

Tesla has released a detailed safety report of its advanced driver-assistance software weeks after Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana called on companies to release more data. On a new section of its website, Tesla addressed claims in relation to customers using its Full Self-Driving (supervised) software.

According to Tesla, users in North America using the software drive around about 5 million miles before facing any major collision, and around 1.5 million miles before any minor collision. The data is at a much lower rate than the national average based on the statistics provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The NHTSA data shows that people get into a major collision every 699,000 miles and a minor one every 299,000, at least according to the interpretation put forward by the firm.

Tesla releases safety report amid criticisms

Tesla has been releasing vehicle safety reports on a quarterly basis for a while. However, those reports have been repeatedly criticized for being insufficient. In addition, the company has not released any information on the safety performance of its Robotaxi trial that has been running in Austin, Texas, this year. The trial has employees in the driver’s seat of the vehicles, monitoring for safety reasons.

Meanwhile, Waymo, one of the leading robotaxi companies in the United States at the moment, based on cars deployed and customers served, has published its own data. The data shows that vehicles are about five times safer than human drivers, and twelve times safer with respect to pedestrians. During the conference held last month, Makawana was asked to name companies that she felt were making the road safer. “I don’t know who’s on that list, because they’re not telling us what’s happening with their fleets,” said Mawakana.

“I think there is a responsibility, if you’re going to put vehicles on the road, and you’re going to remove the driver from behind the wheel, and you’re going to have someone in some other room observing the fleet who can take over their vehicles, it is incumbent upon you to be transparent about what’s happening,” she added. “And if you are not being transparent, then it is my view that you are not doing what is necessary to actually earn the right to make the road safer.”

One of the criticisms that has been directed at Tesla with respect to its quarterly reports is that it is focused on Autopilot, a far less advanced driver-assistance system than the Full Self-Driving (supervised) software.

Despite its name, reports claim that FSD does not make a car fully autonomous. On the other hand, autopilot was designed to be used on highways, which typically see a lower rate of crashes, even when including minor collisions.

However, Tesla has finally released all this data. The new section of the website claims that drivers using FSD travel about 2.9 million miles before any major collisions, while NHTSA data shows that all drivers travel about 505,000 miles before any collision. Tesla mentioned that FSD drivers travel about 986,000 miles between minor collisions, while NHTSA data shows that all drivers drive around 178,000 miles per minor collision.

Tesla has also shown how it defined these terms for the first time. The company is using the Federal Motor Safety Standards. The firm defines major collisions as collisions with higher impact where airbags and other non-reversible restraints are deployed. The company then mentioned that if FSD was active at any point within five seconds leading up to a collision, then it includes the crash in the data set.

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