They focus more on driver-aid systems that encourage not paying attention. Their automated safety systems aren't anything special compared to what most manufactures offer.
Which other vehicles on the road actively steer your vehicle away from an imminent collision when it's safe to do so?
Tesla's blind spot monitoring doesn't just detect what's in your blind spot, like other vehicles, it also detects whether a vehicle is slowing down or accelerating into the "blind spot" adjacent to your vehicle.
Their autopilot or automated emergency braking doesn't just brake when a vehicle in front of your slams on it's brakes, it slows down when someone in front of that vehicle hit the brakes.
There's a lot of intelligent engineering there, and a lot of improvements that are pushing the industry to be safer and more responsible. There's a lot of negative press out there, but much of it is not based on fair statistics.
When I'm trying to figure out which of two really vocal, opposed camps might be more right on some issue, I look for the really hyperbolic statements that are easily refuted but still repeated.
2016: A Tesla's Forward Collision Warning System warns the driver about an impending collision he can't even see yet and starts applying the brakes. https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/28/watch-teslas-autopilot-sys...
2016: A Tesla automatically alerts the driver and swerves to the right to avoid a collision. https://www.inverse.com/article/14393-tesla-autopilot-avoidi...
2018: A Tesla's automatic emergency braking system makes it the only car in an intersection that isn't hit by a someone running a red light. https://insideevs.com/news/342781/watch-this-tesla-model-3-s...
2019: A Tesla gets rear-ended and then swerves around the vehicle in front of it and pulls safely off to the right. https://electrek.co/2019/05/06/tesla-autopilot-maneuver-avoi...
2019: A Tesla avoids a stopped vehicle on a busy road in icy conditions with extremely poor visibility. https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-automatic-emergency-...
There are so many different reports like this that searching for them is boring.
So which manufacturers do you have in mind when you say that "most" of them are offering comparable safety systems?
I recently did a test-drive and the guy maneuvered the car out of the dealer lot by driving backwards and looking out the rear window, completely ignoring the fantastic surround camera and sensor view that popped up on the huge display in the car... Great job selling that feature, buddy.
Another reason is that Teslas are "cool", and get a lot of press in non-automotive circles, which means that a lot of people think they were first with a lot of technology, which simply isn't true.
And a possible third reason is that quite a lot of tech people have been researching and toying with the idea of getting a Tesla, but those same people have never researched similar vehicles from other manufacturers, so they have no idea how they compare.
I had a 2014 Mercedes E-class, its self-driving capabilities was on-par with a 2014 Tesla. However, Tesla offers over-the-air updates of their vehicles, so existing Teslas got better, while my vehicle stayed the same, so that's a point they should have credit for and something they actually do better than most other manufacturers.
https://www.iihs.org/topics/advanced-driver-assistance
"study found that systems with forward collision warning and automatic braking cut rear-end crashes in half, while forward collision warning alone reduces them by 27 percent. The autobrake systems also greatly reduce rear-end crashes involving injury."