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Did Tesla Have the Highest Fatal-Accident Rate? What the Study Found

iSeeCars ranked Tesla highest among brands for cars involved in fatal crashes per billion estimated miles. The finding is not an individual driver-risk estimate or proof of cause.
Entry997 Date Time3 min MechanicCarCody Team
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In iSeeCars’ 2024 analysis, Tesla had the highest brand-level rate: 5.6 cars involved in fatal crashes per billion vehicle miles. That is a study-specific estimate—not a measure of an individual Tesla driver’s odds of dying, and not evidence that Tesla vehicles or driver-assistance systems caused the result.

What “fatal-accident rate” means in this study

iSeeCars counted cars involved in crashes that resulted in at least one occupant fatality, then divided that count by estimated vehicle miles traveled. The unit is cars involved in fatal crashes per billion vehicle miles. It is not deaths per mile, crashes of any severity, or the probability that a particular driver or owner will be killed.

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The analysis used National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data for model-year 2018–2022 vehicles involved in qualifying crashes from 2017 through 2022. iSeeCars estimated the mileage denominator using data on more than eight million vehicles on the road in 2022 from model years 2018–2022. Its published summary does not provide all the underlying exposure data needed to independently reproduce the estimate. See iSeeCars’ study and methodology.

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The analysis excluded heavy-duty trucks and vans, models no longer in production as of model year 2024, and low-volume models from further analysis.

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How Tesla compared with other brands

The brand ranking put Tesla narrowly ahead of Kia. Both rates were above the reported all-vehicle average.

Brand or benchmark Fatal accidents per billion vehicle miles
Tesla 5.6
Kia 5.5
Overall average 2.8

These are iSeeCars’ 2024 estimates for the study’s model-year and crash-year scope, using estimated vehicle miles traveled. The brand figures do not mean that Tesla drivers as individuals faced 5.6 deaths per billion miles.

The brand ranking is not the model ranking

Brand-level and model-level comparisons are separate tables in the study. Tesla ranked first among brands, but the Model Y did not rank first among models: its reported rate was 10.6 fatal accidents per billion vehicle miles, 3.7 times the overall average, placing it sixth among listed models. The Model S rate was 5.8, or 2.0 times the overall average. These are also iSeeCars’ 2024 estimates, not direct predictions of an owner’s personal risk. The study’s tables provide the model comparisons.

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Vehicle size also matters to the comparison

iSeeCars reported different rates by vehicle size. Each figure uses the same unit—cars involved in fatal crashes per billion vehicle miles—and the same estimated-exposure approach.

Vehicle category Fatal accidents per billion vehicle miles
Small cars 3.6
Midsize cars 2.5
Full-size cars 2.0
Overall average 2.8

These category averages help frame the study’s results, but they do not establish why rates differ or make unlike comparisons equivalent.

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What the results do—and do not—show

The findings describe an association in an observational analysis. They do not identify a cause. iSeeCars says driver behavior and driving conditions may contribute to elevated rates alongside vehicle design. Its published description does not isolate those factors or establish that vehicle design produced Tesla’s result.

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Nor does the analysis establish an effect from Tesla’s Autopilot or Full Self-Driving features. Rolling Stone’s coverage of the study notes that it did not account for whether advanced driver-assistance features were in use. The report therefore should not be read as a test of those systems’ safety or as evidence that they caused the rate.

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As iSeeCars Executive Analyst Karl Brauer put it, “New cars are safer than they’ve ever been.” That broad observation does not change what this particular ranking measures: a historical, estimated rate of cars involved in fatal crashes per distance traveled, within a defined set of vehicles and years.

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