My understanding is that they are safe in the event of a crash, not that they have the best crash avoidance.

That's patently a hilariously non-sequitur answer to the OP saying HE got rear ended by a Tesla. HE is the one with whiplash and a totaled car. Who CARES about how safe the stupid Tesla was that did it....

So, it is safer "in the event of a crash" for the people inside the car, but if crash rates are higher (statistics pending) it might be more dangerous for everybody both outside and inside of the car.

Exactly. Tesla is 100% trying to keep you safe on the inside while disregarding safety on the outside. Just look at the Cybertruck, pedestrian safety is clearly their last thought.

Doing well in crash tests means the car does well in those specific scenarios, but may not mean much about other safety issues.

The first several model years of the Model S were generally considered to be among the safest vehicles in the history of automobiles.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-tesla-model-s-achieves...

I continue to believe that minor differences car safety ratings are red herrings. (In a previous life I worked as a mech engg in car manufacturing)

It reminds me of benchmarks on MNIST datasets, to decide which model is better. It is like patting yourself on the back for funding better helmets, when your bike infrastructure is straight out of mad max. The real problem is somewhere else.

Crashes almost never occur like we see in these crash tests. The prime culprit is what you can call 'dangerous actions'. If a Tesla driver is far more likely to be distracted (FSD, Touch controls) or more likely to be out of control at speed (insane acceleration with terrible braking), then a Tesla is an unsafe car. This is irrespective of the marginally lower likelihood of death in ideally controlled circumstances. Taking standard customer behaviors into account is one of the basics of design. If you market your lvl2 system as FSD, then a few idiots will let the car drive while in the back seat. If your car can't brake effectively past 120 mph, then maybe it shouldn't accelerate to that number within the blink of an eye.

I am also ignoring the safety risk posed by these vehicles towards anyone else on the street. It has long been my complaint that the SUV & Pickup craze is actively making the roads unsafe. They have worse blind spots & can kill with the kind of efficiency that sedans can only dream of.

Tesla's safety ratings are misleading too. For one, Tesla's high safety has to do with being one of the first truly electric cars on the market. Electric cars can't roll, are heavy and thus the crash zones can absorb more energy due to having more mass. Electric cars are thus objectively safer in straight line collisons. [1] But, that's like saying that your military tank is incredibly safe, but crushing dozens of cars in front of you. Safety should be about how safe the streets are with your car on the road, vs not being on the road. Alas, this is a problem with the car industry at large. So, Tesla isn't really to blame for this one.

[1] https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/with-more-electric-vehicles...

"But, that's like saying that your military tank is incredibly safe, but crushing dozens of cars in front of you. Safety should be about how safe the streets are with your car on the road, vs not being on the road. "

I recently witnessed an almost head-on collision between a H2 Hummer and a Chevy Malibu. The H2 Hummer lost control (i think due to speeding) and served into oncoming traffic. The H2 flipped on it side but was barely damaged; the Malibu was completely mangled.

An "autopilot" that requires a driver's attention is not an autopilot.

If people really understood that the car driving is less reliable than themselves, they might not turn it on at all. Imagine you teaching a 16 year old to drive while commuting, everyday. NTY

> An "autopilot" that requires a driver's attention is not an autopilot.

Weird; I thought that's exactly what an autopilot was.

And they probably still are, along with the rest of the models.

Assuming you're actually the one driving them that is, and not a broken ass camera.

Where I live Tesla has quite high insurance rates. Mostly because it’s very expensive to repair but also because Tesla drivers tend to speed and cause more accidents than other drivers.

Perhaps the drivers didn't mean to speed...