Tesla’s Safety Score
The Full Self Driving Beta is getting closer, and with it comes some other features on the Tesla app and vehicle. The so-called Safety Score is intended to evaluate the driving behavior of Tesla owners and represent a kind of gamified rating.
The Tesla website eplains the five factors of the gamified Safety Score:
Forward Collision Warnings per 1,000 Miles
Forward Collision Warnings are audible and visual alerts provided to you, the driver, in events where a possible collision due to an object in front of the vehicle is considered likely without your intervention. Events are captured based on the ‘medium’ Forward Collision Warning sensitivity setting regardless of your user’s setting in the vehicle. Forward Collision Warnings are incorporated into the Safety Score formula at a rate per 1,000 miles.Hard Braking
Hard braking is defined as backward acceleration, measured by your Tesla vehicle, in excess of 0.3g. This is the same as a decrease in the vehicle’s speed larger than 6.7 mph, in one second. Hard braking is introduced into the Safety Score formula as the proportion of time (expressed as a percentage) where the vehicle experiences backward acceleration greater than 0.3g relative to the proportion of time where the vehicle experiences backward acceleration greater than 0.1g (2.2 mph in one second).Aggressive Turning
Aggressive turning is defined as left/right acceleration, measured by your Tesla vehicle, in excess of 0.4g. This is the same as an increase in the vehicles speed to the left/right larger than 8.9 mph, in one second. Aggressive turning is introduced into the Safety Score formula as the proportion of time (expressed as a percentage) where the vehicle experiences lateral acceleration greater than 0.4g, in either the left or right direction, relative to the proportion of time where the vehicle experiences acceleration greater than 0.2g (4.5 mph in one second), in either the left or right direction.Unsafe Following
Your Tesla vehicle measures its own speed, the speed of the vehicle in front and the distance between the two vehicles. Based on these measurements, your vehicle calculates the number of seconds you would have to react and stop if the vehicle in front of you came to a sudden stop. This measurement is called headway. Unsafe following is the proportion of time where your vehicle’s headway is less than 1.0 seconds relative to the time that your vehicle’s headway is less than 3.0 seconds. Unsafe following is only measured when your vehicle is traveling at least 50 mph and is incorporated into the Safety Score formula as a percentage.Forced Autopilot Disengagement
The Autopilot system disengages for the remainder of a trip after you, the driver, have received three audio and visual warnings. These warnings occur when your Tesla vehicle has determined that you have removed your hands from the steering wheel and have become inattentive. Forced Autopilot Disengagement is introduced into the Safety Score formula as a 1 or 0 indicator. The value is 1 if the Autopilot system is forcibly disengaged during a trip, and 0 otherwise.
From these factors and the experience of 6 billion miles (9.6 billion kilometers), the Predicted Collision Frequency (PCF) is calculated, which is a value of 0.682854 at one million miles (1.6 million kilometers). This is then used to calculate the safety score using the formula 115.382324 – 22.526504 x PCF, which ranges from 0 (completely unsafe driving) to 100 (completely safe driving).
What does this look like in concrete terms? First of all, you need to download the latest Tesla app version from the App Store, where a new menu will appear on the home screen: Safety Score (beta version).
Selecting this menu brings up another screen with the score, the five factors and their values, as well as trips and the breakdown by the daily trips you had. I myself started with a score of 76, and after several more trips where I was careful on the road, I was able to increase to a Safety Score of 91. The score update happened immediately after each ride, so I was able to increase from 76 to 91 points in just one day. With the breakdown of safety-related factors, I also receive timely feedback on my driving style and behavior.
Why am I doing this? Because of the Full Self Driving Beta, which will now be offered to more Tesla customers. After I requested it, Tesla is now checking my driving behavior over the next few days and will then decide whether I can load the FSD Beta onto my vehicle and try it out.
However, the Safety Score has already been used to calculate premiums for Tesla insurance, which Tesla began offering in California in late 2019.
SORRY NOT SORRY
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This article was also published in German.