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Tesla May Have A Safety Problem

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State Stefan joined discussion · Oct 26, 2021 08:53
$Tesla(TSLA.US)$One of the major bull thesis for electric vehicle maker Tesla currently is the massive opportunity that exists in autonomy. Despite failing to have a million robo-taxis on the road in 2020 as Elon Musk had previously promised, major investors like Ark Invest and its CEO Cathie Wood have high hopes for this part of the market. Unfortunately, the latest set of news shows a troubling pattern of events that puts Tesla's safety into question.
Tesla releases a quarterly vehicle safety report, also known as the Autopilot report. Up until last quarter, the company had released this data pretty much within 2-3 weeks of a period's end. The Q2 data didn't come out until the last day of September, which was very strange, and the latest results can be seen below (in terms of millions of miles driven per accident). This was the second quarter in a row where the year-over-year Autopilot stats got worse.
(Source: Tesla vehicle safety report)
(Source: Tesla vehicle safety report)
Remember, this is a system that's supposed to be constantly improving. Also, while Tesla fans may say that a Tesla on Autopilot is much safer than the average driver, we don't truly know that. Most Tesla Autopilot miles are done on highway miles where there are much less crashes, and Tesla is comparing its data across all vehicle types. Would you really see a valid comparison between crash data of a large Toyota Tundra versus a tiny Fiat, for instance?
Recently, Tesla has pushed its full self-driving Beta version to a select group of drivers. To get on the system, you had to have a perfect 100 "safety score", which was calculated based on your recent driving history. While Elon Musk even admitted that the safety score wasn't perfect, Electrek posted an article on Thursday that Investment Advisor and ETF Manager Ross Gerber, a vocal Tesla fan, got access to the Beta program despite a safety score of just 37. There are a few items from that article that are very concerning, as quoted below.
He [Ross Gerber] said that he believes Tesla sent him the update because “everyone in the media” follows him and he can spread information about the Full Self-Driving Beta update.
However, I would note that the first thing he did after getting the update is drive and film with a handheld device while using FSD beta.
That goes against Tesla’s recommended use of Autopilot and FSD features. It’s also a driving violation in California.
This is extremely troubling, regardless of how good a driver Ross Gerber actually is. If Tesla is indeed pushing the FSD Beta program to vocal supporters instead of those with the highest safety scores, it is risking the safety of everyone on the road just to be promotional. If Ross had a high score like a 95, this might be a different discussion, but just a 37 seems to show something isn't right here. In fact, Ross Gerber has already promoted FSD to his more than 175,000 Twitter followers as seen below.
(Source: Ross Gerber Twitter)
(Source: Ross Gerber Twitter)
Additionally, it appears that Tesla is coming under increased scrutiny from US regulators. According to CNBC, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently asked Tesla why it didn't initiate a recall recently when pushing a safety update regarding emergency vehicles. This came after at least twelve Tesla vehicles crashed into first responders' vehicles on the roads while using some of Tesla's advanced safety features, and this included one fatality. The NHTSA also frowned upon Tesla requiring initial users to sign non-disclosure agreements ("NDAs") when using FSD Beta, as Tesla was apparently afraid that users would post videos of poor experiences or system problems on social media. It appears that Tesla has since stopped the NDA practice, but it's certainly not a good look.
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  • Tiptopptrader : Tesla will be fine.... Probably should have bought shares instead of telling us the sky was falling in 2019
    Thanks for reassuring my bull case! If the last 10 years haven’t taught you anything the next won’t either.
    DO NOT BET AGAINST TSLA!
    Yes it's the same old story...
    why is woods selling under $800

  • Sam White Tiptopptrader: Yes it's the same old story...

    why is woods selling under $800

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