NHTSA: Crash Data for Autonomous, Assistance Vehicles Not Useful

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its first report June 15 on crashes involving autonomous vehicles or those with advanced assistance systems.

However, its findings should be taken with a whole shaker-full of salt because of issues with the data that make it virtually impossible to compare one company’s results with another’s.

Since July 2021, 130 crashes involving Level 3-5 automated driving system (ADS) vehicles have been reported, according to the NHTSA. None of these vehicles are being sold to the public yet, but they are being tested on public roads.

Waymo LLC — which develops self-driving systems for Class 8 tractor-trailers, delivery vans and other vehicles — reported the highest number of ADS crashes (62), followed by Transdev Alternative Services (34) and Cruise LLC (23). Transdev develops autonomous tech for transit vehicles, while Cruise tests self-driving tech for shuttles and Chevy Volts.

The NHTSA’s report also stated that 367 crashes involving vehicles with Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have been reported since July 2021.

Unlike ADS vehicles, ADAS vehicles can be purchased by consumers. They require a driver to be in the vehicle.

Tesla reported 273 crashes involving Level 2 ADAS vehicles, the highest number by far. Honda reported 90, the second-highest number.

Loads of Caveats

When issuing its report, the NHTSA included many caveats about the data.

For example, some reporting entities provided data more quickly than others because their vehicles are equipped with telematics capabilities, according to a NHTSA release.

In addition, manufacturers and developers are not required to report the total number of vehicles they have produced or developed, or how many miles those vehicles have traveled.

“Thus, these data cannot be used to compare the safety of manufacturers against one another,” the press release stated.

Crash report data may be incomplete or unverified, according to the NHTSA report.

Also, a single crash may have multiple reports from multiple entities.

“Consequently, the overall number of reports submitted does not equate to the total number of incidents and is not a meaningful safety metric,” the report stated.

The NHTSA is working with reporting entities to improve data quality in future reporting, according to the report.