Tesla FSD: Media report questions safety promises
Driving with FSD Supervised is ten times safer, Tesla promises. According to a report, however, Tesla used distorting comparison values.
(Image: Hadrian / Shutterstock.com)
According to Tesla's advertising, supervised semi-autonomous driving (FSD Supervised) is about ten times safer than driving without FSD. A report by the news agency Reuters, which cites various unnamed Tesla employees, paints a different picture: The car manufacturer of Elon Musk is comparing apples with oranges, they say. Meanwhile, FSD Supervised has been approved in another EU country, Estonia, after the Netherlands and Lithuania.
According to the Reuters report, Tesla compares FSD accidents with airbag deployment to accident data from US federal authorities, which include far fewer serious accidents without airbag deployment. If airbag deployment were used as a benchmark, the additional safety of FSD would decrease from 10 to 1 to 3 to 1.
Employees report weaknesses
Furthermore, according to the report, Tesla ignores vehicle age in its comparisons. Its own fleet, with an average age of 4.1 years, has an advantage solely due to more modern safety systems – this is not exclusively attributable to FSD and thus distorts the statistics in Tesla's favor. In the US federal average, cars are 12.8 years old. Further criticism concerns the counting method: Tesla only evaluates accidents within five seconds of FSD deactivation. However, the US traffic authority NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) prescribes 30 seconds.
In addition to statistical distortions, Reuters also claims to have learned about shortcomings in the FSD software. The employees interviewed work in the evaluation of video recordings and data logs from the vehicles. Their work is intended to improve the AI used in the vehicles. For example, the system does not reliably recognize school buses that use extendable stop signs and warning lights to prevent overtaking at stops. These warnings are ignored. There are also increasing problems with emergency vehicles, construction sites that the car does not recognize correctly, and pedestrians crossing at crosswalks.
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Constant topic of debate online
There is a lively exchange on social networks about the reliability of FSD. Critics repeatedly show videos of vehicles that do not recognize situations correctly and behave incorrectly. FSD proponents counter with recordings that show how traffic accidents were avoided and how the vehicles integrate smoothly into road traffic. Tesla has always accompanied this with its safety statistics.
However, according to Reuters, the US company does not disclose the raw data. It also keeps certain recordings secret internally. Near-collisions with pedestrians, for example, are evaluated by selected employees who call themselves the “Trauma Team.”
Considerable preparation effort for Robotaxi
The alleged shortcomings also reportedly affect Tesla's Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. The launch was preceded by nighttime route recordings and hundreds of hours of data labeling, while Musk claimed that FSD works everywhere without mapping. Currently, only 50 instead of the intended 500 vehicles are reportedly in use, some still accompanied by safety drivers.
According to Reuters, four investigations by traffic authorities are underway in the US concerning FSD or Tesla's Autopilot function.
FSD Supervised now also in Estonia
In Europe, FSD Supervised has now been approved for use in another country after the Netherlands and Lithuania: The transport authority in Estonia announced on Friday that it recognizes the type approval from the Dutch road traffic authority RDW. In the Netherlands, extensive test series were carried out before approval, in which FSD Supervised had to prove its reliability. There is currently no statement on whether FSD Supervised will also be approved in Germany.
(mki)
