While speaking last week with Ketil Solvik-Olsen, Norway's Minister of Transport and Communications, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk made a claim about the company's Autopilot program which went mostly unnoticed.
Musk's comments, spotted by news website Electrek, claims that based on early data regarding Tesla's semi-autonomous driving system, accidents occur 50 percent less when the system is turned on.
Musk claims that the figure holds true even with the first version of Tesla's Autopilot system, which is its current semi-autonomous state. Accidents, which are defined as instances when the vehicle's airbag needed to be deployed, were that much lower compared to when humans are driving.
Some inconsistencies can be pointed out from the data, including the fact that not all accidents would involve airbag deployment, and that the sample size for Tesla in testing its Autopilot system could be limited. In addition, the system is only to be used while on divided highways and in good road conditions, so including city driving and driving in poor road conditions could take that 50 percent figure down.
Nevertheless, that percentage decrease in number of accidents remains impressive, especially considering that Tesla's autopilot system only uses basic algorithms alongside a limited suite of sensors. This would prove to be a good starting point for Tesla as it looks to move its Autopilot system to phase two.
The second version of Tesla's Autopilot system is expected to be fully autonomous, and Musk believes that by then, the system should even be safer to be able to satisfy the regulators that will approve the installation and usage of such a system in Tesla's electric vehicles.
Tesla is looking to increase its sample size to billions of kilometers of driving to definitely prove that the system makes travelling safer for drivers and passengers. The company already has about 75 million kilometers of testing, and so the company is well on its way to achieving that goal.
For at least one driver though, the system has already made a difference. Ohio driver Joshua Brown's life was saved by Tesla's Autopilot system while cruising down an interstate with his Model S electric car, as the system was able to steer the car to safety when a truck cut cross three lanes of traffic.
