Tesla reports safety data showing FSD reduces collisions significantly, but critics aren’t buying it

Tesla wants you to know its Full Self-Driving technology is saving lives. The company published safety data claiming vehicles running FSD experience 7 times fewer major collisions compared to manually driven Teslas. The data, derived from over 4.86 billion city miles of telemetry, also suggests FSD-equipped vehicles see 5 to 7 times fewer minor and off-highway collisions when stacked against both manually driven Teslas and broader US averages. Tesla’s ultimate pitch: if FSD were widely adopted across the country, it could save more than 32,000 lives and prevent 1.9 million injuries annually in the US alone. The numbers look great, until you look at how they were made A Reuters investigation characterized Tesla’s comparisons as “weak and misleading,” questioning whether the company’s internal data can be fairly compared to national averages or figures from other automakers. Democratic Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal called for an official review by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of Tesla’s FSD safety data on June 16, 2026. May 2026 saw a record 207 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems crash reports, the highest monthly total on record. While t...