The road to truly autonomous vehicles is paved with data, and lately, the debate over who’s sharing what and how transparently has been heating up. In a move that could mark a significant step forward, Tesla has recently pulled back the curtain on its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software, offering a more detailed glimpse into its performance and safety metrics. This comes just weeks after a prominent call for greater data sharing from the autonomous vehicle industry.
A New Era of Disclosure? Tesla’s Latest Safety Figures
Tesla has launched a new section on its website dedicated to showcasing the performance of its advanced driver-assistance systems. Here, the electric vehicle giant claims that in North America, drivers utilizing their Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software are experiencing approximately 5 million miles before a major collision and around 1.5 million miles before a minor collision. These figures, if accurate and consistently applied, appear to significantly outshine the national average.
According to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the average driver encounters a major collision roughly every 699,000 miles and a minor collision every 229,000 miles. Tesla’s interpretation of these numbers suggests their system is considerably safer.
The History of Tesla’s Safety Reports: A Contentious Past
It’s important to note that Tesla has been releasing quarterly "vehicle safety reports" for some time. However, these reports have often faced criticism for being insufficient, failing to provide the granular detail the industry and the public have been seeking. Furthermore, Tesla has remained notably tight-lipped about the safety performance of its Robotaxi trial, which has been operating in Austin, Texas, this year. While employees are still present in these vehicles to monitor and ensure safety, concrete data on their real-world performance has been scarce.
Waymo’s Stance: The Unwavering Call for Transparency
This push for greater transparency resonates strongly with companies like Waymo, currently considered the leading robotaxi company in the U.S. based on fleet size and customer reach. Waymo has consistently published detailed data, asserting that its vehicles are approximately five times safer than human drivers and an impressive twelve times safer with respect to pedestrian incidents.
At a recent TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Waymo’s co-CEO, Tekedra Mawakana, didn’t mince words when discussing the importance of open data. When asked about other companies contributing to road safety, she expressed frustration: "I don’t know who’s on that list, because they’re not telling us what’s happening with their fleets," she stated, without naming Tesla directly.
Mawakana further elaborated on the ethical responsibility of companies operating autonomous vehicles. "I think there is a responsibility, if you’re going to put vehicles on the road, and you’re going to remove the driver from behind the wheel, and you’re going to have someone in some other room observing the fleet who can take over their vehicles, it is incumbent upon you to be transparent about what’s happening," she urged. "And if you are not being transparent, then it is my view that you are not doing what is necessary in order to actually earn the right to make the road safer."
While Waymo has not yet commented on whether they believe Tesla’s new data meets their standard for transparency, Mawakana’s sentiments highlight a critical industry-wide desire for openness.
Beyond Autopilot: Unpacking FSD (Supervised) Data
A recurring critique of Tesla’s previous safety reports was their focus on Autopilot, a less advanced driver-assistance system compared to the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software, or FSD. Autopilot, typically used on highways, operates in environments that statistically see fewer accidents. The new data from Tesla finally provides a breakdown for FSD (Supervised).
According to Tesla’s latest figures, drivers using FSD (Supervised) travel about 2.9 million miles between major collisions. This stands in stark contrast to the NHTSA data, which indicates that all drivers average about 505,000 miles per major collision. For minor collisions, Tesla claims FSD users drive approximately 986,000 miles, while the national average for all drivers is around 178,000 miles.
Defining ‘Collision’: Tesla Sheds Light on its Methodology
Crucially, Tesla has for the first time explained how it defines these terms. The company is adhering to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, specifically 49 C.F.R. § 563.5. A "major collision" is defined as a crash with a high-severity impact, specifically one where the vehicle’s airbags or other "non-reversible pyrotechnic restraints" are deployed.
Furthermore, Tesla includes a collision in its FSD dataset if the system was active at any point within the five seconds leading up to the incident. This broad definition, as explained by Tesla, is designed to capture a comprehensive picture: "This calculation ensures that our reported collision rates for FSD (Supervised) capture not only collisions that occur while the system is actively controlling the vehicle, but also scenarios where a driver may disengage the system or where the system aborts on its own shortly before impact."
Future Reporting and Data Limitations
In its FAQ section, Tesla has committed to updating this data quarterly, presenting a rolling twelve-month aggregation of miles and collisions. This approach aims to keep the data relevant and reflective of current trends and progress. However, the company also states that it will not release other types of information, such as injury rates. The rationale provided is that this data is collected automatically from the vehicles, and Tesla prioritizes "objective and programmatic metrics such as collision frequency and airbag deployment rates." They view airbag deployments as a reliable indicator of collision severity.
The Broader Implications: AI, Safety, and Public Trust
The release of this more detailed data from Tesla, while still subject to scrutiny and comparison with industry peers like Waymo, represents a significant development in the conversation around autonomous vehicle safety. As AI continues to advance and influence how we travel, transparency in performance and safety metrics becomes paramount. Building public trust in these nascent technologies requires not just technological innovation but also a commitment to open and verifiable data sharing. The coming quarters will reveal whether this move by Tesla signals a lasting shift towards greater accountability in the autonomous driving sector.