The number of times I shout “your car is supposed to be smarter than that!” As a Tesla does something like, without signaling, whips around me and into oncoming traffic to pass a stopped city bus is staggering.
Comment on Tesla Has The Highest Accident Rate Of Any Auto Brand
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
This is purely my anecdotal experience, but Tesla drivers appear to be some of the worst drivers on the road. There are stereotypes of drivers. BMW’s never signal their turns, Jeeps think they can drive basically however they want including on shoulders, and Tesla drivers are oblivious to any kind of spatial understanding of the road around them.
User_4272894@lemmy.world 6 months ago
formergijoe@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Fun fact, the Lending Tree analysis listed in the article showed that Ram drivers have the “highest incident rate,” which looks at accidents, DUIs, speeding, and other traffic citations. This makes them the statistically worst drivers. BMWs have honorable mention as the having the highest DUI rate.
MaxPow3r11@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It’s reflective of their larger view/“understanding” (or lack of understanding) of the world/how it all works.
viking@infosec.pub 6 months ago
I came here to say exactly that. You can blame Musk for many things, but the cars are only as good as their drivers, and they are some of the worst I’ve seen indeed.
Kbobabob@lemmy.world 6 months ago
the cars are only as good as their drivers,
The design of the car isn’t that great. No physical buttons so you have to constantly look away from the road to interact with any car feature. Wipers, mirrors, climate control, music, etc… the blind spot and side views are on the display. Need to merge left but have to look right to see if it’s clear.
not_again@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Using the touch screen as a pain, for sure. However, nearly all commands on the touch screen can be accessed via voice commands from a button on the steering wheel. In practice, the need to use the touch screen while driving (other than to monitor your speed and cruise control settings) is practically zero.
dpkonofa@lemmy.world 6 months ago
They do have mirrors, you know… The lack of physical buttons isn’t that bad either. You shouldn’t be fucking with things while driving whether there are buttons or not.
FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
You pull over to adjust the AC?
Kbobabob@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Your can the blind spot in the physical mirrors?
variants@possumpat.io 6 months ago
Yeah all the priest drivers switched to tesla’s, I’ve seen them so many times getting in the highway going to slow and merging across all lanes just to cause traffic
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I blame the design that forces you to keep your eyes off the road. Making a left turn? Don’t look left, take your eyes off the road and look down at the screen on your right to see the left lane warning. Wipers need adjustment? Take your eyes off the road and look at the touch screen because there are no buttons.
Now that there is data, maybe the highway administration can force Tesla to put driver safety ahead of esthetics.
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 6 months ago
I’m sure that’s one contributing factor, but I’d bet that the biggest issue is that the car is made to go fast. People who drive faster end up in more accidents. Hence why Audio / BMW drivers are also stereotypically bad drivers - they are both brands that focus on high acceleration.
PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The “faster=more accidents” thing is actually kind of up in the air. Like with many things, it’s a bell curve, but driving a few MPH over the limit appears to be safest. Supposedly because people who drive a little bit faster tend to pay more attention. Sure, there are the outliers like the people who weave through traffic at 100MPH, but only a few over the limit appears safest.
Some of the highest accident rates actually come from people who regularly go under the limit. Because those are the people who are geriatric, distracted, texting, drunk, high, etc. and are going slower because they want the extra stopping distance or don’t want to be pulled over for speeding. Plus there’s all the hazards associated with going slow on the highway, when you’re only doing 45 MPH and traffic is flying past you in the next lane at 75. At that point, you’re practically a moving road hazard.
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 6 months ago
As far as I can tell that’s not at all the case in Sweden where I live, in fact geriatric or slow drivers are very rarely involved in accidents. See e.g. www.itf-oecd.org/sites/…/sweden-road-safety.pdf which says “Inappropriate speed is one of the leading causes of road crashes”. You can find more research saying similar things on Google, e.g. that for every 10 km/h increase, the risk of an accident increases by 33 percent.
But it’s not just a matter of having a high overall speed. It’s also how quickly you accelerate / break. BMW/Audio/Tesla drivers have a high capacity for acceleration and they use it e.g. to overtake in situations when others wouldn’t. I suspect the cause/effect is the other way around though - if you’re a reckless driver who doesn’t care about safety, you’re more likely to choose a car that has a lot of power.
catmtking@lemm.ee 6 months ago
I posit that the amount of potential acceleration may be more correlated than the raw speed. Accelerating quickly makes you less predictable to the drivers around you.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Could it be the that nervous and less confident drivers are the ones that drive at or slightly below the speed limit?
Maybe it’s not that driving faster is safer but worse drivers drive slower to attempt to compensate.
Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
That’s the reason why my friend wants to get one even though he dislikes Elon. One of the faster ev cars out there.
Fogle@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
The wiper thing used to be an issue for sure, thankfully now you can use the wheel buttons to do it. Also for turning you really don’t need to look at anything. I’m not saying people don’t but you don’t need to. There are still a few things that are somewhat annoying mainly the defrost/defog but I feel like I look the same amount as I did in my other car to push those buttons as well
not_again@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The voice commands work as well as anything. It’s much easier to push the roller button on the steering wheel and say “turn on defroster” than to manipulate controls (either on a touch screen or non-touch screen interface)
TheDubh@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Voice controls are great, unless you have a strong accent it doesn’t understand, a speech impediment, or mute. Which are all things that normally wouldn’t disqualify you from driving a car. Which I feel like should disqualify them from the discussion of physical vs tablets myself.