Comment by mysterypie | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mysterypie | Hacker News Reader

Paraphrasing from the article:

  Tesla Autopilot: 1 fatality per 130 million miles
  All US vehicles: 1 fatality per 94 million miles
  Worldwide vehicles: 1 fatality per 60 million miles

If the statistics above are accurate, logically there should be no reason for distress, worry, accusations, or mistrust. Or at least much less so than for ordinary driving. It's like shark attacks: No matter how remote it is, there's going to be big debates about it, investigations, TV specials, lawsuits, hand wringing, and new laws.

But isn't Tesla autopilot working only in highways, which are much safer then average road? Then this statistic wouldn't be that good.

As tragic as it is, I don't think one case makes it enough to call it a statistic yet

If all the world drove cars whose passive safety was as good as Tesla Model S, number of miles driven per fatality worldwide would be more than 130 million miles, I think. An average car around the globe is quite a junk. I think we should compare the Tesla Autopilot numbers only with non-Autopilot Tesla numbers.

Well, if you read those vehicle statistics as "the richer the people, the less fatalities", then those Tesla Autopilot scores may be worse than you might expect.

If the average is 1 per 90M, it's worth remembering that with just 130M tested, the variance is huge.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com