How common are autopilot accidents?

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature, formerly marketed as Autopilot, is in beta testing in the US. In Germany, Tesla drivers – so far – can only use a limited assistance package according to level 2 of five. Since June 2021, car manufacturers in the USA have had to report all accidents involving semi-autonomous assistance systems. Since the introduction of this obligation, 392 accidents have been reported to the American transport authority NHTSA, with 273 accidents involving Tesla EVs have taken place.

Tesla reports accidents recorded via black box

However, as the NHTSA itself writes, these statistics are not representative of all accidents. After all, car manufacturers first have to learn about an accident. At Tesla, for example, this is done using a black box in the car. At BMW, Porsche and VW, only one accident was reported in which a level 2 driver assistance system was active in the last 30 seconds before the crash.

So far there is only one car manufacturer that offers a semi-autonomous assistance system according to level 3 of 5 in mass-produced vehicles. Only Mercedes-Benz has received the necessary certification from the Federal Motor Transport Authority for the Drive Pilot. The Drive Pilot can take over control of the vehicle in traffic jams on motorways at speeds of up to 60 km/h and, for example, independently initiate braking manoeuvres. While the Drive Pilot is working, the driver can watch a film or answer e-mails on the central touchscreen. If you want to use the Drive Pilot, you have to either buy a car model approved for it, such as the S-Class or the EQS electric car, and pay a surcharge of at least around 6,000 euros. In addition, the Drive Pilot only works under certain conditions, which we have listed on the next page. It will probably be a long time before autonomous driving becomes available on a massive scale. Especially since fully autonomous driving, as is often read, will be rather impossible.