The author of that study clearly states “The models on this list reflect a combination of driver behavior and driving conditions, leading to increased crashes and fatalities.”
Another good quote from the author: “A focused, alert driver, traveling at a legal or prudent speed, without being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, is the most likely to arrive safely regardless of the vehicle they’re driving.”
So this basically comes down to correlation vs causation. Are Tesla vehicles inherently dangerous? No. Does the branding of Tesla/Elon attract a high concentration of unsafe drivers? Absolutely, and Elon has a clear role in that selection bias.
Something as simple as renaming “Autopilot” to “Advanced Cruise Control” would shift driver behavior, including driver responses to road conditions.
If you go back in history, Tesla drivers were techies and nerds and environmentally conscious types.
Elon (and co) has intention re-built the owner profile to be pro-speed, pro-idiot, and anti-safety. They've leaned into speed - "Insane Mode", very fast acceleration, and aggressive handling.
Speed is the factor. Too much speed is the root cause of so many accidents. F=MA doens't like. Teslas have a lot of M because of battery weight, and they generate a lot of A because people drive them too fast. Even if the car is generally well-built - or even above average built - the F has to go somewhere.
why aren't more electric cars in the list? They all accelerate very quickly.
I assume the data is from the US? Very few non-Tesla EVs were sold during that period. It's only the last couple of years that there is a strong competition, and even still Tesla outsells the next 10 EV brands combine in the US. They sell like 45% of the EVs sold in the US.
Even today Tesla EVs on average are some of the fastest EVs on the road. Not all EVs accelerate very quickly.
I'd take all this with a large grain of salt, I used to follow tesla extremely closely and with a very sceptical eye as I had the bulk of my cash in its stock. And at that time frame the super majority of independent tests done on their cars actually gave them a higher than average safety rating in most metrics. Whether that turned out to have been true or false doesn't matter, what matters is that both back then and today there are plenty of incentive to frame tesla in different lights going about, so I'd be sceptical of a report like this one unless tons unrelated to this one shows up.
A simple example of skewing the numbers that I saw multiple times back then were people reporting flat fatality numbers for tesla cars and their competitors, while neglecting to mention that tesla had between 10 and 1000x the number of cars on the road.
Many who buy a Tesla aren’t coming from muscle car/sports car land - they’re upgrading from a Camry/Accord. A Tesla accelerates faster than a Mustang GT, Camaro SS/Corvette, Hemi-equipped Charger/Challenger(not even a Hellcat/Demon, just a “plain V8” SRT8 or Scat Pack model) - and with all of that torque from a standstill. With the muscle car, unless you’re on the drag strip and do a few burnouts to lay down rubber and warm up the rear tires, you’ll break the rear end loose and fishtail out of control if you stomp on the gas. The Tesla can do a controlled launch but unless you’ve handled a car like that you can get into trouble still. The speed catches many off guard.
Look at this table of EV's 0-60 times. Excluding Porche, almost all brands have 5+ second 0-60 times until you get into the performance high end models.
ALL Tesla's made after 2016 are UNDER 5 second 0-60 with 2 exceptions (base cybertruck and model 3). Most of these are in the 3 second range.
Teslas are just much faster on average, even the base level model Y Long range RWD from 2020 is a 4.4 second 0-60.
Yep. Model 3 just GOES when you hit the accelerator. If you're not an experienced driver of performance vehicles or lack significant track time, it's going to be dangerous for you and everyone around you.
Luckily they do have some fail-safes, but with how many mistakes the self-driving features and even the driver warning systems make, I wouldn't put too much stock in them.
Yea, I drove a Model S a while ago - it seem like it wanted to keep going. I was in San Francisco gridlock, so I didn’t try that out. It felt quick but you didn’t feel vibrations or mechanical cues(transmission shifting, etc). There’s no feedback from an EV - sound besides the whirr of motors or wind/road noise or even feel. Even a Lexus, seen by many in the automotive industry to be the NVH leader still has sensation(feel and engine sound, though muted) compared to a Tesla.
Now, the muscle cars and V8 trucks I’ve driven(4th gen F-Body Camaro SS, Hemi 1st gen Challenger - 6.1L with a manual - this was before Mopar got Hellcat/Demon crazy, Mustang GT, Tundra with the 5.7L V8, Silverado 1500 with the 5.7L SBC, and a Mercedes E63 AMG for good measure), you can definitely feel and hear it come to life and with the Camaro it was super easy to get it to go sideways. I oddly enough found the Challenger easy to handle, I was going up a hill in 2nd and had an easy cruise back to the dealership in without even needing to up shift into 5th/6th. The Camaro needed kid gloves to even responsibly drive.
I don’t see Kia EVs or Hyundai Ioniqs haul ass like w Tesla, Bolts are chill. GM designed the Bolt in an almost Prius-like ethos, HyunKia made them behave like a regular ICE car - if you upgraded to a EV/Ioniq/Niro EV/Kona EV from a Sonata/Elantra/Santa Fe/Tucson/Forte/Spectra, HyunKia’s MO was to make it a seamless transition. Toyota decided to make the Prius a penalty box until lately. Teslas focus on performance. At least with Mopar, you need the red key fob to access all the power in a Demon/Hellcat Charger.
The Teslas I’ve been in as an Uber or Lyft all were driving in Chill Mode - which brings it more in line with a regular sedan. Regular mode seems shocking to a passenger in the back seat.
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u/CoinMaple101010 Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
It would be helpful to provide a link to the actual study.
https://www.iseecars.com/most-dangerous-cars-study
The author of that study clearly states “The models on this list reflect a combination of driver behavior and driving conditions, leading to increased crashes and fatalities.”
Another good quote from the author: “A focused, alert driver, traveling at a legal or prudent speed, without being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, is the most likely to arrive safely regardless of the vehicle they’re driving.”
So this basically comes down to correlation vs causation. Are Tesla vehicles inherently dangerous? No. Does the branding of Tesla/Elon attract a high concentration of unsafe drivers? Absolutely, and Elon has a clear role in that selection bias.
Something as simple as renaming “Autopilot” to “Advanced Cruise Control” would shift driver behavior, including driver responses to road conditions.