Featured Tesla drivers are the worst, study shows

Wow! Unbelievable! This must be the first car ever ever ever in rainy conditions that any car ever hydroplaned. So now all we need is a first time evet for any car ever - that slid off the road due to ice. No wonder it proves all Tesla drivers are horrible.
Thank you so much for the proof.

How much time did you waste looking into this worst driver thing? Try looking up urban legends website because they indicate the website you finally found was blowing smoke up the sphincter.

Study Claimed Tesla Had Highest Fatality Rate of Any Car Brand – But Is It True? | Snopes.com

 

This suggests an interesting prediction question: as Tesla becomes more and more mainstream, will

• more and more drivers from the mainstream be turned into bad drivers? or
• the badness of Tesla drivers as a group tend to revert toward the mainstream?

 

Tesla drivers are the worst? I always thought Prius drivers were the worst. At least that's in the area where I live. Prius drivers usually drive as fast as possible around here. Tesla drivers have to make sure they'll make it to the next charging station or home, which isn't that easy to do with the terrain and climate around here.

 

I always go to Lendingtree for peer reviewed research.
This is as relevant as the 'studies' put out by iseecars. It isn't looking at a random sample for the data, but people using the insurance shopping tool. A person buying insurance for a Tesla, may not have had one for the incidences being reported for the quote.

 

For some reason, I'm not feeling confident that Lending Tree customers are very representative of the overall driver population.

 

LOL, this is like a paul gregory thread

 

Tesla is old yellow stain

 

So here is what Tesla reports: https://www.tesla.com/fsd/safety



Perhaps a minority Tesla driver due to the cost, $6,000 in 2019, I use Full Self Driving (FSD) all the time. Since AutoPilot, $1,200 in 2019, saved me and my family from a medical emergency the next month, it paid for itself in the first month.

Curious, the Tesla safety report appears to be a training orientation presentation. I've long known and tested how to train novices with AutoPilot and FSD. So now my passengers fall asleep when I use FSD to drive. But it takes about two hours and two sessions before that level of confidence occurs.

Bob Wilson

 

Or perhaps you might explain what expertise "Lending Tree" brings to the party?

I have over six years of AutoPilot and FSD, real world, experience. One accident each in Tesla and BMW i3-REx, so a small sample set. Off hand, sample set N=1, neither car has a unique metric for this driver. So let's see what your source claims:

Craig Cole
Published Feb 12, 2025
Craig has worked in automotive media for nearly 20 years, producing content for publications ranging from Autoline and AutoGuide to Roadshow by CNET and EV Pulse. Aside from writing, he’s also scripted and hosted countless videos during his career – first look features, listicles, vehicle reviews, comparison tests and more. When he’s not creating insightful automotive content, Craig enjoys getting his hands dirty, both in the garage and garden.

Online financial services comparison company LendingTree has an answer.

Based on its QuoteWizard tool, between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, LendingTree reports that Tesla drivers are the worst in the nation, with 36.94 incidents per 1,000 drivers, which is “up significantly from 31.13 in our late 2023 analysis.” For clarification, an incident includes things like accidents and DUIs as well as speeding and traffic tickets. Overall, 30 automotive brands were analyzed in this study.

It should be no surprise, but the automotive brands with the worst drivers also had the highest accident rates. Once again, per 1,000 motorists, Tesla had 26.67 crashes, Ram 23.15, and Subaru hit 22.89.​

I would help if IIHS-HLDI, insurance companies, or NHTSA data showed similar metrics. Got this result from Google:

Studies show Tesla has a higher fatal accident rate than many other brands, with a rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven compared to the national average of 2.8. This is a rate double the national average and is attributed to a combination of factors including high-performance vehicles, potential driver overconfidence in the Autopilot feature, and aggressive driving behaviors. However, some studies suggest Tesla drivers also have more accidents per capita, though this doesn't always translate to fatal accidents.

Factors contributing to higher accident rates

• Driver behavior: A common theory is that the high-powered acceleration and technology in Teslas can encourage more aggressive or risky driving.
• Autopilot and Full-Self Driving (FSD): The advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) may lead to a false sense of security, causing drivers to pay less attention to the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has identified Autopilot as a significant contributor to crashes.
• High performance: Tesla's rapid acceleration can be a factor in accidents, especially when drivers are not accustomed to managing such powerful vehicles.

​

Perhaps we can find "some studies" in addition to Lending Tree?

Bob Wilson

 

i think mixing in accidents, dui's, speeding and citations may not provide the best way to determine the worst drivers

 

You don't have to be related in any shape or form to the fossil fuel industry to understand - that the globe has warmed for 1,000s of years prior to the invention of the ICE. THAT'S why glaciers used to nearly run down to Tennessee at one time.
Oil Co's didn't need much research to point that out. Maybe consider a better analogy

.

 

That sounds like a very poor description of how the most recent Ice Age cycle ended.

The warm-up from that deep freeze was fairly quick, and was completed thousands of years ago, things were comparatively stable since. Though it seems there were regional (not global) things such as what have been named the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age.

 

Very poor? That's fine. It doesn't negate how despite mankind's use of fossil fuels over the miniscule amount of time of 1½ centuries, temperatures have risen & temperatures cooled plenty.

 

Where is the "& temperatures cooled plenty" part in the most recent "1½ centuries"?

The regional (mostly North Atlantic) "Little Ice Age" ended before we had the ICE.

 

It can be used for determine worst drivers. Less so for most dangerous car.