On Wednesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released its first annual automated vehicle crash report, providing statistics on accidents for Level 3 through 5 autonomous vehicles as well as Teslas and other vehicles using automated driver assistance services. The report, which reveals drastically lower crash rates for AVs than for Teslas, does not provide comparable statistics for non-automated vehicles.

“NHTSA smartly recognized the critical differences between real autonomous vehicles and Tesla’s driver-assistance technology, breaking out statistics for each separately,” said Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich. “What’s missing is a baseline for comparison showing crash rates for human drivers which would show the massive toll of distracted, intoxicated, and unsafe human driving. This is like putting out a pie chart with 98 percent of the pie missing.”

Last year, Chamber of Progress wrote to NHTSA Director Steven Cliff, urging Cliff to avoid conflating autonomous vehicles and Teslas. Chamber of Progress highlighted how AV companies have intentionally taken a more cautious, transparent approach to testing automated driving systems in order to avoid the driver confusion and vehicle collisions that Tesla has experienced.

Chamber of Progress has also urged Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg to support innovation in the AV sector and the deployment of AVs, citing the ability of AVs to reduce traffic fatalities and connect disabled communities and non-drivers.

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Chamber of Progress (progresschamber.org) is a center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology’s progressive future.  We work to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly.  

Our corporate partners do not have a vote on or veto over our positions. We do not speak for individual partner companies and remain true to our stated principles even when our partners disagree.