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Comment by jostmey | Hacker News Reader

Quote: "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that crash rates for Tesla vehicles have plummeted 40% since Autopilot was first installed."

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When they talk about Autopilot, are they also including assisting technologies that help you avert accidents even when you're driving yourself (technologies that other car manufacturers have too)? I'm asking because AFAIK you can't use the Autopilot in urban driving, and I would expect most accidents involving insurance (including non-fatal ones) to occur in urban driving...

"that crash rates for Tesla vehicles"

"for Tesla vehicles"

You'd need to compare this to vehicles from other brands that have had Autopilot-like features for over a decade to actually get a sense of the number, otherwise, it is meaningless. That's like saying:

"Cars with ABS have lower crash rates than same cars without"

Why is the comparison necessary? My understanding is that insurance should be factoring in the expected value of accidents, which is an absolute measurement, not a relative one.

I don't think so. In fact, since they're comparing very similar pools of cars and drivers with the introduction of Autopilot being the major difference, I'd think that this is a more valid comparison than one which compares vastly different pools of cars and drivers.

Isn't that still an indicator, albeit not a strong one, that Tesla-like autopilot features are safer?

Saying "Cars with ABS have lower crash rates than the same cars without" means that I'd prefer a car with ABS... I don't wanna spin out in the snow. I'd also enjoy and feel somewhat entitled to a lower insurance rate than a non-ABS car.

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