95 Tesla deaths have involved fires or Autopilot. How the EV maker fares in fatalities per million miles.::Tesla deaths from fires and Autopilot make up 24% of the fatalities in crashes. Learn about the death rates per million miles and vs other cars.
Honestly I don’t know how Tesla got past USA regulation on its autopilot. In the USA aircraft have to meet FAA safety standards. A new model aircraft has to go through extensive flight testing and receive FAA certification before it can go into production. I’m not sure who governs automotive safety in the USA, but they did something unusual to push through it. Either that or automotive safety regulations in the USA are just not that strict.
There’s also the fact the batteries they use can spontaneously catch fire (properly known as thermal runaway). I would think that to pose a big safety consideration, but evidently it’s not a problem for US regulations. There is a Li-Ion battery technology much less prone to thermal runaway (LiFePO4) and some cars use it. It’s greatly safer and has about five times greater battery longevity, but it’s also about twenty percent heavier. I think it’s a fair trade-off to avoid a fiery death.
Thermal runaway is not spontaneous. It requires sustained heating, which is typically caused by serious damage. So yes, lithium batteries can catch fire after a crash. But do you know what else catches first after a crash - ICE powered cars (at a rate 10x higher than EVs). And ICE cars are FAR more dangerous, because unlike an EV that burns slowly for hours, an exploding gas tank releases its energy in an instant. Ask a firefighter what’s more dangerous.
Most Teslas use LiFePO4 (commonly called LFP) batteries. Most other manufactures still use NMC barriers. Both are far safer than the explosive dinosaur juice that ICE vehicles run on.