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How Often Do Teslas Catch Fire or Get Into Accidents?

Tesla reports about one fire event per 140 million miles for 2012–2024. Its accident data and government crash reports use different definitions, so no single comparable fleet-wide rate is established.
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Tesla’s latest fire report estimates that a Tesla fire event occurs about once every 140 million miles driven, based on its global fleet data from 2012 through 2024. There is no similarly straightforward, independently comparable figure in the available sources for how often Teslas get into accidents: Tesla and regulators count different kinds of events and use different methods.

How often do Teslas catch fire?

Tesla reports approximately one vehicle fire event for every 140 million miles traveled across its global fleet from 2012 through 2024. This is Tesla’s estimate, not an independently audited rate. Tesla’s Vehicle Fire Data report gives the figure.

Tesla compares its estimate with one U.S. vehicle fire per 17 million miles, based on National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and U.S. Department of Transportation data cited by Tesla. The figures do not use fully matching definitions: Tesla says its count includes fires caused by structure fires, wildfires, arson, and other causes unrelated to the vehicle, while the NFPA comparison excludes fires where a structure is involved. Tesla’s report describes the comparison and its scope.

How often do Teslas get into accidents?

The sources do not establish one independent, fleet-wide Tesla accident rate that can be directly compared with the fire figure. “Accident” can mean any collision, a major collision, a crash involving an airbag deployment, a fatal crash, or an incident reported while driver-assistance software was active. Each measure captures a different set of events.

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Tesla’s live Vehicle Safety Report uses vehicle telemetry to calculate collision rates and describes comparisons with manually driven Teslas and an estimated U.S. baseline. Its methodology uses Federal Highway Administration vehicle-miles-traveled data and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash data, while acknowledging that differing criteria and assumptions can introduce noise or bias. Tesla’s report explains its approach.

What Tesla counts in its collision reports

Tesla says it reports collisions regardless of who or what contributed and does not assign fault. That is Tesla’s reporting policy, not a regulator’s determination of responsibility. For an event to count as an FSD-engaged collision in Tesla’s reporting, Full Self-Driving (Supervised) must have been active at some point during the five seconds before the collision. That timing rule does not establish that FSD caused the crash.

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The collision data comes from vehicle telemetry. Tesla notes that cellular connectivity problems or damage to communication systems may affect whether an event is captured, and says injury information is not consistently supplied or accessible to the company. Its report also cites a telemetry volume of 2.5 billion packages in Q3 2025, excluding China; that is a volume of data, not a crash count or safety rate. Tesla’s methodology and report describe these limitations.

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Why government crash reports do not give a simple rate

NHTSA’s Standing General Order database collects reports of crashes involving vehicles equipped with automated driving systems or SAE Level 2 driver-assistance systems. Its raw totals are not adjusted for fleet size or miles driven, and NHTSA cautions that the reports should not be assumed to represent all crashes. Reports may also be incomplete or unverified, and manufacturers may differ in how readily they learn about incidents. A count from this database therefore cannot be treated as a per-mile accident rate or compared directly with Tesla’s fire estimate. NHTSA’s Standing General Order page explains the data’s limits.

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For a narrower question about fatal crashes, NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) provides fatal-crash data from 2010 onward. Because FARS covers fatal crashes, it cannot show how often Teslas have collisions of every severity. NHTSA’s FARS Crash API provides access to that data.

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How to interpret the figures

  • For fires: Tesla’s published estimate is about one event per 140 million miles for 2012–2024; its U.S. comparison is one fire per 17 million miles, but the counting scopes differ.
  • For accidents: ask whether a figure counts all collisions, only serious or fatal crashes, or crashes associated with driver-assistance use.
  • For comparisons: check the period, geography, event definition, and denominator. A rate per miles traveled is not comparable to a raw incident count or a percentage of a separate crash database.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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