Featured Tesla Q2 2024 Safety report:

If you look at the chart labeled Deaths and MV rates 1913-2022,

Historical Car Crash Deaths and Rates - Injury Facts

The lowest one was in 2014 at 1.17. When went back to the numbers before the 2010.

 

The whole 2009-2014 span established a new bar for what safety we can achieve.

... then something(s) started breaking. It didn't seem to be the cars themselves, their crash safety tests and scores continued to improve.

... then the Pandemic hit, and things got even worse.

 

Perhaps widespread use of smart phones...while driving

Mike

 

Level 2 ADAS adoption started taking off in that time frame.
A History of ADAS: Emergence to Essential | IDTechEx Research Article
Same with smart phones.
Demographics of Mobile Device Ownership and Adoption in the United States | Pew Research Center

So we have more phones to entice drivers away from driving, and the spread of car features that could enable to do so at the same time.

 

Yes, Tesla is calling the combination of Autosteer (lane holding) and Adaptive Cruise Control, "Autopilot". But when the layman hears "autopilot" he thinks it is an autonomous self-driving automobile.

 

what layman is that? likely a tiny minority of blockheads

 

That is one potential factor. But don't use that as an excuse to quit looking at other potential factors, or to deflect from a sacred cow you may want to protect.

It could very easily be a combination of multiple factors, to different degrees, including some surprising ones we haven't initially considered.

 

Entertainment has given the impression that airplane autopilot is more capable than it is, and that is the source of how it works for most of the public. Supposedly, Tesla engineers didn't want to use the Autopilot name over concerns of that public confusion could lead to issues.

 

I would think that for a car it should be called "autodriver" or "autochauffeur."

 

That could be worse. It is the auto that can give the impression to car can do more than it can.

 

Maybe "AI-driver" then would give the right impression.

 

And a minority that is screwing it for the rest of us.