Joseph White
DETROIT (Reuters) – Tesla’s Autopilot and full self-driving technology and nine other driving assistance systems sold by major automakers received “poor” ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in a new study released on Tuesday.
The IIHS, the insurance industry’s safety research arm, also said there is no evidence that Autopilot or other driving assistance systems have real safety benefits based on crash data.
“We can look at insurance claims data. We were able to study vehicles with and without these (systems) and determine that there was no reduction in claims as a result of implementing these more advanced systems,” IIHS President David Harkey told Reuters. .
By comparison, there is evidence that automatic emergency braking systems reduce rear-end collisions by 50% and reduce vehicle-pedestrian collisions by 30%, he said.
Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have said that a Tesla operating with Autopilot enabled is about 10 times safer than the U.S. average and five times safer than a Tesla without the technology enabled.
Federal regulators are investigating about 1,000 crashes in which Tesla’s Autopilot was used. The civil case, scheduled to go to trial next week in California, will be the latest test of Tesla’s strategy of blaming crashes on drivers who don’t heed the electric car maker’s warnings to pay attention to the road when using Autopilot or full self-driving technologies.
Tesla did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The IIHS study assessed 14 driver assistance systems from nine automakers against its standards. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has no official standards governing advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS in industry terminology.
“There are no federal regulations or good consistent guidance,” Harkey said. “That was our reason for putting these security measures together.”
Of the systems IIHS tested, only one received an Acceptable rating: Lexus Teammate with Advanced Drive, offered last year on a small number of vehicles. Toyota Lexus LS luxury hybrid sedans from Motor (NYSE:).
“Toyota continually strives to improve vehicle safety,” Toyota said in a statement. “As part of these efforts, Toyota, among other things, considers performance in third-party testing programs such as the NHTSA New Vehicle Assessment Program and the IIHS Top Safety Pick program.”
GM’s Super Cruise and Nissan’s ProPILOT Assist with Navi-link (OTC:) offered on the 2023-2024 Ariya EV received “marginal” overall ratings.
“We are evaluating the results of the first-ever partial automation test and will continue to cooperate with the IIHS on all issues related to customer safety,” Nissan said.
GM said in a statement that Super Cruise is “intended to enhance the driving experience” and not as a safety feature.
Various driver assistance systems from Tesla, Mercedes-Benz (OTC:), BMW (ETR:), Nissan, Ford (NYSE:), GM, Hyundai (OTC:) Genesis brand and Geely Volvo (OTC:) Cars brand. received “poor” overall ratings, although they all received “good” ratings on certain elements of the IIHS tests, the group said.
“This new IIHS testing methodology does not evaluate the performance of driver assistance systems, but instead focuses on measures to prevent misuse,” Mercedes said in a statement. “We take the findings of the IIHS Partial Driving Automation Protection Ratings very seriously.”
Harkey said automakers could improve safety ratings by adopting existing technology for features such as driver monitoring or attention warnings that received “good” ratings.
Tesla and other automakers are improving the capabilities of their systems, according to the IIHS. Tesla has revised its Autopilot software to comply with the federal recall agreement, and IIHS will test the updated system, Harkey said.
“We’re certainly going to take the results of these tests into account as our vehicles and these systems continue to evolve,” BMW spokesman Jay Hanson said Monday. BMW now offers a more sophisticated driving assistance system on some U.S. models than what the IIHS tested.
The Genesis GV80 SUV, which arrives in the United States this spring, will be the first model from Hyundai’s luxury brand to feature an in-cabin camera that will monitor the driver’s face and eyes when the driver assist system is activated. “This improvement will also be rolled out to future Genesis products in the coming months and years,” the company said.