by US Senators Demand Verification of Tesla’s FSD Safety Claims
Tesla has claimed for many years that its Full Self-Driving system is safer than a human driver. However, a recent journalistic investigation has cast doubt on these assertions. Now, two US senators are calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to scrutinize this technology more closely.
Problems with Safety Statistics
The problems began last month following a Reuters investigation. Elon Musk and other Tesla executives have repeatedly stated that FSD is 10 times safer than a human. However, journalists found that the company achieved this metric by comparing crashes involving vehicles with FSD where airbags deployed against the general US accident rate, which includes even minor collisions without airbag deployment.
There was another issue with the calculations. Reuters notes that Tesla compares its vehicles to the average American car, which is significantly older than a typical Tesla. The latest safety systems installed on all modern vehicles help reduce the number of accidents, making such a comparison inaccurate.
Demands to NHTSA
Democratic Senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent a letter to NHTSA demanding answers to a series of questions. Specifically, they want to know whether the agency has evaluated Tesla’s FSD safety claims and whether it has requested the crash data upon which these claims were based.
Furthermore, the senators urged NHTSA to strengthen reporting requirements for companies using advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous driving technologies similar to those used by Tesla.
Situation in Europe
Tesla’s safety claims are raising questions not only in the US. According to Reuters, as part of an attempt to get FSD approved in Europe, the company allegedly provided regulators with inflated safety data. The system ultimately received approval from the Dutch regulator RDW, which is now seeking authorization for the system’s use across the entire EU.
Shortly after the approval in the Netherlands, Tesla policy manager Ivan Komusanac sent a letter to Swedish regulators requesting FSD approval. In this letter, he reportedly stated that FSD could save 32,000 lives and prevent 1.9 million injuries. However, it turned out these figures were based on US data which assumes replacing all vehicles with Teslas equipped with FSD. The Swedish Transport Agency stated it would “look beyond the flashy headlines” to determine if the system is safe enough for approval.
This situation demonstrates that regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are beginning to take a more critical view of marketing claims by manufacturers of autonomous technologies. The use of selective data and indirect comparisons can mislead both consumers and government agencies. Further investigation by NHTSA and the position of European regulators could significantly impact how companies will be forced to prove the safety of their systems in the future, as well as the pace of autonomous driving adoption in different countries.
