Tesla insists Autopilot and Full Self-Driving are safe, but US senators aren’t buying it

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In a letter to two top Senate Democrats, the company insists that its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features are safe. Really safe. It's safer than driving by a human. The senators aren't really buying it.

The ability of our cusotmes to drive safer than the average driver in the U.S. is enhanced by the features of the Autopilot and FSD Capability. The letter was first reported by a news agency.

The letter to the company's CEO was written by a senator and raised concerns about Autopilot and FSD. Federal regulators have been called on to crack down on the misuse of advanced driver assist features by the company.

These features are capable of performing some but not all of the Dynamic Driving Tasks, but they are not Level 2 systems. It would seem that the product is called Full Self-Driving.

In his letter, Patel provides a more nuanced overview of Autopilot and FSD than what is typically provided by Musk in public comments. Musk claimed in a recent earnings call that by the end of the century, he will be safer than a human driver.

He insists that the advanced driving features ofTesla are safer than human driving. He notes.

For example, in the fourth quarter of 2021, Tesla recorded one crash for every 4.31 million miles driven in which our drivers were using Autopilot technology, compared to the NHTSA most recent data, which shows an automobile crash occurs every 484,000 miles.

In order to frame autopilot as safer than human driving,Tesla occasionally releases safety reports that echo these same statistics. Experts note that these statistics are meaningless, as autopilot is primarily used for highway driving. Compared to national statistics that include a wide variety of driving environments, including residential and urban driving, givesTesla an unfair advantage.

The driver monitoring system uses cabin cameras and Torque sensors in the steering wheel to keep an eye on the driver.

He did not mention that regulators and safety experts have been begging for years to add better driver monitoring to its cars. Musk has admitted that crashes involving the company's cars stem from the fact that they're not paying attention. Musk said at the time that the tech was not effective.

Cars with camera-based eye-tracking systems are being sold by companies like General GM and Ford to make sure drivers pay attention while using hands-free driving features.

If the goal of the letter was to appease the concerns of Blumenthal and Markey, it doesn't seem to have succeeded.

The senators said in a joint statement that this is just more evasion from the company. It has been a long time sinceTesla got the message: follow the law and prioritize safety.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.