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Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate of all auto brands, study finds

(www.roadandtrack.com)
307 points MBCook | 3 comments | 15 Nov 24 20:15 UTC | HN request time: 0.825s | source
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legitster ◴[15 Nov 24 20:46 UTC] No.42150811[source]▶
In a big picture, this makes sense. You can load the cars with safety features, but it doesn't change the fact that these cars are very heavy, very fast, and loaded with features that reward distracted driving. In the US at least, the top killer of drivers are trees on the side of the road.
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1. dpats ◴[15 Nov 24 21:10 UTC] No.42151101[source]▶
> In the US at least, the top killer of drivers are trees on the side of the road.

Do you have a source on that?

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2. legitster ◴[15 Nov 24 21:55 UTC] No.42151618[source]▶
> From 2016 to 2018 an average of 19,158 fatalities resulted from roadway departures, which is 51 percent of all traffic fatalities in the United States.

https://highways.dot.gov/safety/RwD

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3. gamblor956 ◴[16 Nov 24 00:28 UTC] No.42152961[source]▶
FTL: "FHWA defines a roadway departure (RwD) crash as a crash which occurs after a vehicle crosses an edge line or a center line, or otherwise leaves the traveled way. Another term our partners often use is lane departure, which is synonymous with RwD, since both include head-on collisions when a vehicle enters an opposing lane of traffic."

Road departure fatalities are high because of head-on collisions, not because there is an epidemic of people crashing into trees along the side of the road. If you follow the links on the cited page, they clearly show that head-on crashes result in more fatalities than tree+utility pole crashes.