A review of road accidents shows autonomous vehicles saves lives by reducing road accidents by over 4 times today. Tesla Full Self Driving software, currently in limited beta use demonstrates a 10 times reduction in accidents. The deaths of 1400 people and 46,000 hospitalisations cost Australia over $30 billion per year in 2015. The direct cost of just one year’s trauma to Australia’s government budget is more than $3.7 billion. (AAA report PDF here)
Crashes kill 1.3 million a year globally in 2019. Over 36,000 in the USA. Road accidents will become the fifth leading cause of death globally by 2030. Boys and men make up most at 75%, no surprise there! Accidents remain the leading cause of death among young people aged 15–29 worldwide. (United Nations Report)
More than half the global road traffic deaths are among pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. As well as deaths, between 20 and 50 million people suffer non-fatal injuries. The death rate in low-income countries is 35% more than in high-income countries. This is despite lower rates of vehicle ownership in developing countries.
Many local governments are taking steps to redesign streets and build more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly public spaces. In response to the Covid pandemic, some cities increased active modes of transport, especially bicycling. Since 2020, many cities have built more dedicated bicycle lanes to separate bikes and cars.
Evidence that Autonomous Vehicles Saves Lives
Tesla cars have 1/3rd the accidents of other vehicle models and Tesla registered one accident for every 1.26 million miles driven. By comparison, NHTSA’s most recent data shows that in the United States there is an automobile crash every 436,000 miles.
If drivers use Tesla Active Driving, they become almost 10X safer (based on Tesla Q4/2021 Safety Report).
