The way Elon Musk tells it, they put it into production once it was safer per mile than human drivers. Which seems like a legitimate point.
You use something when it's better than what you would have to use in the alternative, not when it's 100% perfect with no possibility of ever making a mistake under any circumstances. Which is probably not even actually possible to do.
The problem is if human drivers kill more than 30,000 people in a year, it's not news, because it's been that way forever. But one autonomous car kills one person and it's the top story.
I'd caution you against believing anything that he says. It's easy to extract from the data an unfair comparison that shows the group with Tesla AP being safer, but comparing it against cars in totally different driving context or against the safety of motorcycles is just completely deceptive. The stats indicate that Tesla w/AP enabled on freeways is less safe than Tesla w/o AP enabled on freeways.
That's all marketing fluff.
The only U.S. insurance company offering such a discount is some random startup insurance company available to only a small percent of the population. The company is about 2 years old, requires significant tracking of your driving behavior, and it's entirely unclear why they are offering the discount.
The only UK insurance company offering such a discount said “it was too early to say whether the use of the autopilot system produced a safety record that justified lower premiums. It said it was charging less to encourage use of the system and aid research.” It made this decision working closely together with Tesla, it wasn't based on any actuarial data.
Also, from that article, it looks like the NHTSA found that crashes were 40% lower in cars with autopilot. [2] I don't know enough about insurance and how it works to know if that counts at all, but it shows that it's not all marketing fluff.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-liberty-mutual-create-...
[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-autopilot-cuts-crash-r...
"Liberty Mutual Insurance offers discounts for various electronic safety features; such as Adaptive Cruise Control, Adaptive Headlights, Collision Preparation Systems (including automatic braking), Blind Spot Warning, Lane Departure Warning and Rear-View Cameras"
I'd be interested in seeing crash data for Teslas compared with other $50-$130k cars less than 5 years old.
I don't know it well enough to know if there were other factors at play, but it wasn't just that Teslas in general were less likely to crash, only the ones with AP hardware installed.
But Tesla knew it would certainly be perceived as such.
How? I'm not trying to instigate something here, but a quick search of this isn't showing anything except a bunch of groaning about how unfair it is that Tesla gets all kinds of tax breaks for its cars because it's the only one selling electric at any kind of scale.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-liberty-mutual-create-...
"The firm's InsureMyTesla program is an example of Tesla working directly with an insurance partner to mitigate risks and keep rates low."
I thought subsidize meant that they would be basically paying the difference.
If there's no money changing hands in this partnership, then either the insurance companies are really dumb and are just throwing money away, or there's some truth to the stats that tesla keeps bringing up (40% fewer crashes in cars with autopilot) (or there's something else i'm missing!)
Insurance companies may do this because it is a strong signal the customer is gullible to questionable upsells. Maybe they've found that statistically they can sell them more things like overpriced umbrella insurance through direct mail marketing pack ins with their car insurance bill.
(edit: opps, I misread AP as FSD)
It's also only used/active when it is reasonably able to work. Therefore the miles used are inherently better/safer as it is (much less whiteout / torrential AP driving).
This is a luxury human drivers do not have, short of "do not drive those miles at all".
I have always hated this metric. It's disingenuous, and selective.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-autopilot-cuts-crash-r...
They may not be taking the hardest miles, but the only way to improve the overall average is to be doing better than the status quo on the miles they are taking.
The thing is that I can take precautions to increase my safety margin - don't drive impaired, drive in good weather conditions, get lots of sleep, don't be aggressive, don't follow closely, etc. etc. etc.
I don't have a Tesla, but I imagine there's nothing I can do to voluntarily make it safer. It functions normally until it doesn't.
In that sense these Level 2 systems are a lot like q-tips. The box says you shouldn't stick them in your ear, but everybody knows that's what you buy them for. If everybody were to follow the directions, the consumer desirability of the product would plummet.
Even though you're not supposed to take your hands off the wheel, level 2 systems are often referred to as "hands off". And during a 60 Minutes interview Elon Musk is seen taking his hands off the wheel. Unofficially the point of Level 2 automation is that you can take your hands off the wheel. Officially, your hands must remain on the wheel. The unofficial usecase is what actually gets consumers enthusiastic, but the official usecase is what companies like Tesla cover their ass with.
They're having their cake and eating it too.
It's common knowledge that most people think they're better than average drivers, so we tend to compensate and believe we're no better than the statistical average driver. But yes indeed, most of us in fact are better than average drivers whenever we're doing our best to drive carefully.
They were comparing crash and fatality statistics against things like motorcycles.
So no "over a billion" isn't plenty.
Are they safer? Possibly. Statistics show they are safer? That's bollocks. There's not enough data to say yet.
... until it mis-view an exit lane and attempts to crash/kill you, that is (see events of 2018).
That is kind of deal breaker for me, when talking about 1+ ton metal box moving me around I will take "slow to market but not blind" instead.
I'm still waiting for Tesla to accept reality and put lidar (make the option more expensive if you have to and you probably do, whatever)