Tesla Leads The U.S.A. In Autopilot Crashes
The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released reports that for the first time show the number of crashes and fatalities involving autonomous vehicles (AVs) and vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Autonomous car developer Waymo and electric car manufacturer Tesla are leading in these lists.
While auto and tech companies insist that new technologies save lives, more people died in U.S. car crashes last year than in the past three decades. In this regard, the regulator came to the conclusion that automakers need to provide additional data in order to accurately determine whether new systems increase road safety or simply make driving easier.
Last year, the NHTSA issued an order requiring car companies to report vehicle crashes involving autonomous driving systems, as well as Level 2 driver assistance systems, which are currently used in hundreds of thousands of vehicles. In particular, companies must document instances where ADAS and automation technologies were used in the 30 seconds prior to an accident.
Tesla appears to have a much higher accident rate than other self-driving car manufacturers due to the fact that it sells more vehicles equipped with Level 2 systems than its competitors. The number of Tesla vehicles with autopilot is estimated at 825,970. Tesla collects real-time telematics data from its customers, greatly speeding up the reporting process. Other automakers usually have to wait for reports from the field, sometimes dragging on for months.
In terms of autonomous vehicles, there were 130 accidents between July 2021 and May 2022, according to the NHTSA report.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, reported 62 accidents, Transdev Alternative Services, which operates unmanned shuttles, recorded 34 accidents, Cruise, a subsidiary of GM, reported 23 accidents. In this case, the number of accidents is related to the activity of companies in testing autonomous vehicles. In 2021, Waymo robo-cars traveled 3.7 million km, Cruise autonomous vehicles 1.4 million km.
