If you are trying to get into the Tesla FSD Beta program, or maybe are just wondering what the Safety Score is, then this is the post for you.
Tesla has been trying to improve their FSD Beta software for the last few years and rolling it out to more and more Tesla owners has been one of their strategies.
This enables them to collect more real-life data from Tesla drivers and also see how people are using it and where the software fails.
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FSD Safety Challenge
The problem with providing more and more “unknown” people access to the FSD Beta program is that there could be more accidents.
In the beginning, Tesla was very careful to only provide access to employees or people they trusted. This is because they wanted people with Tesla vehicles to pay attention at all times, keep their hands on the steering wheel and avoid accidents, of course.
So, the challenge was how to filter out the safer drivers from all the people who wanted FSD Beta.
Tesla Safety Score
Tesla’s Safety Score was developed as a way of evaluating driver behavior based on five safety factors:
- Forward Collision Warnings (per 1,000 Miles)
- Hard Braking
- Aggressive Turning
- Unsafe Following
- Forced Autopilot Disengagement
These factors are used to determine a collision per 1 million miles driven. The safety score formula is based on statistical modeling with 6 billion miles of Tesla fleet data. It uses a mileage weighted average so that the score is fairly assigned to all driving over time.
Most of these factors make sense, as Tesla has found them to influence accident rates in drivers of their vehicles.
For example, the safety factor Unsafe Following determines how often and how long you are too close to a vehicle in front of you when you are driving over 50mph.
Another safety factor Aggressive Turning measures how much of a turn is spent at high acceleration (over 0.4g).
Viewing Your Tesla Safety Score
You can see your Tesla Safety Score on the home screen of your Tesla app. Of course, you must have at least software update 2021.32 for this feature to be available.
There are more details available at the bottom of the screen which you can access by tapping on ‘Daily Details’. This can help you see what you did well, and what you could improve on to get a better Safety Score.
Rolling Out FSD Beta To High Safety Scores
With the addition of the Safety Score feature in all Teslas, they can then start rolling out FSD Beta to the safer drivers first, the ones with a high safety score, and then assess things from there.
Elon Musk stated that they will start with a safety score of 100 and then slowly move down to 99, 98 etc.
This started on October 11, 2021, with FSD Beta 10.2 rolling out to safety scores of 100/100.
Safety Score Issues
Of course, the safety score model is far from perfect and especially in the very beginning, people had to drive extremely carefully to get a high score.
Certain factors such as even moderately hard braking were causing lower safety scores. And the use of Autopilot seemed to increase scores too.
Some Tesla owners even resorted to adding “student driver” stickers to the back of their electric cars to warn people of their slow driving. Such was the “getting into FSD Beta” game, especially in the early days.
The formula will definitely improve over time as Tesla gathers more data. After all, it is a system that will be used for Tesla Insurance.
It’s An Insurance Idea
Many insurers are trying such models by inserting a driver monitoring device in your vehicle to assess your driving behavior and provide an insurance premium based on this, rather than the average of all drivers.
The Safety Score system will be used for Tesla insurance customers to monitor driving behavior and help lower insurance prices, especially for those who drive more safely. If you improve over time, your premium will drop, and vice versa if you drive less safely.
Using it for FSD Beta is a good way to filter out the more reckless drivers from the very safe ones.
