Tesla Again Has The Highest Accident Rate Of Any Auto Brand
By Steve Banker, Contributor.
I cover logistics and supply chain management.
Feb 11, 2025, 09:40am EST
Tesla’s cars are once again involved in the most accidents according to a study by LendingTree insurance. It found that Tesla drivers are involved in more accidents than drivers of any other brand. Some of these accidents involved Tesla’s self-driving system. Nationally, Tesla drivers had 26.67 accidents per 1,000 drivers. This was up from 23.54 last year.
The Ram and Subaru brands were again among the most accident-prone. Ram had 23.15 per 1,000 drivers while Subaru had 22.89.
The study is based on QuoteWizard by LendingTree insurance inquiries from Jan. 1, 2024, through Dec. 31, 2024. They analyzed the 30 brands with the most inquiries in this period. This study categorizes drivers based on inquiries made for those brands.
Interestingly, the study attributes the problems to the drivers not the cars. While DUIs and speeding can clearly be attributed to driver behaviors, and these behaviors cause accidents, accidents can also be attributed to the performance of the cars themselves.
PROMOTED
Does the Tesla Self-Driving Feature Cause Accidents? Tesla Autopilot, an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), was released in 2015. The first fatal crashes involving Tesla’s autopilot occurred less than one year later. The fatal crashes attracted attention from United States government agencies, including the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA’s analysis concluded that the Tesla Autopilot death rate is higher than the reported estimates. In addition to fatal crashes, there have been many nonfatal ones. The incidents were caused by the ADAS failing to recognize other vehicles, insufficient Autopilot driver engagement, and it is argued, poor operational design.
As of October 2024, there have been hundreds of documented nonfatal incidents involving Autopilot and fifty-one reported fatalities, forty-four of which NHTSA investigations or expert testimony later verified and two that NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigations verified as happening during the engagement of Full Self-Driving (FSD).
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