One of the first decisions you are met with when buying a Tesla is what insurance you should buy into. It isn’t an easy task since most insurance companies inflate the cost of insurance for these vehicles due to cost and the fact that insurance companies have one goal over any: to make a profit. Then you find out that Tesla has its own insurance in multiple states and that price seems so verey tempting as it seeks to underbid most if not all of the other companies.
But is it worth it? There has got to be a catch, right? There sure is and it’s called a “safety score”. You are constantly monitored by Tesla for your driving habits. Judging you based on various analytics, such as aggressive turning or braking. The better the score, the lower the price for the following month. If you have used any other tracking option to gain a discount with other companies, this should sound familiar (and it is).
You have to drive like an old fart that has nowhere to go and no reason to get there on time. Which is actually pretty easy to do in a Tesla since as long as you brake via the regenerative braking and not the actual brakes themselves, you’ll never get dinged. Of course, if someone cuts in front of you without warning and is going slower than you forcing you to hit the brakes to lower your speed quickly, you’ll likely get dinged for that. Not that you aren’t driving safely by responding quickly and proudly to the situation. It’s still your fault (per Insurance companies), so deal with it, right?
That’s what it feels like at times, but that is just the start of it. Tesla also judges you based on how closely you follow other cars past 50MPH. This would actually be a great statistic to judge someone’s driving by. However, in this case, you don’t just have to keep a safe distance. You have to be way back behind someone. Like 7+ car lengths. Good luck doing that in a major city like Los Angeles or even here in Las Vegas. Where everyone thinks a single car’s length between you and the car in front of you is the perfect spot to fit three other cars (and without any warning). See how these stats suddenly pile up on you at times?
You also get a major ding if you ever get kicked out of using FSD (Full Self-Driving). Which, for the most part, is hard to do if you are using it properly. Most important, you have to keep your hand(s) on the wheel at all times or it will warn you. Wait to long as you’ll get kicked out. That really isn’t a bad statistic either. Except that it can be notorious for not sensing you if you have both hands on the wheel. So it is best to only have one hand to offset the weight with and trade back and forth so it isn’t too tiring. Really though, this is a good thing to judge someone on (especially, as they get better with their detection).
The worst of it though, is the “Forward Collision Warning” that goes off if it thinks something has happened in front of you that could potential result in a frontal collision if you aren’t paying attention. It sounds like it makes sense, except that it goes off regardless of if you are paying attention of not. Not only that, but it makes many mistakes. What adds even more to it being the worst is that this too is a major ding on your score. And it will happen frequently and you will have to pay for it and it will drive you mad.
Among those I work with here, there are three Tesla owners, two of which left Tesla’s insurance for another company. The third is considering it. I have been keeping a close ear to everything they have been saying and have even driven a few of the cars myself to see what the experience is like (both the vehicles and the things Tesla score watches). I have also been diving deep into forum discussions, subreddits, and more. Just to see what everyone else is saying to see if there are different trending opinions.
But, all three of the owners here have agreed without hesitation that the Frontal Collision Warning (which I will refer to from here on out as FCW) is the number one thing that drove their decisions (or the consideration) to leave. This also seems to be the number one complaint anywhere else.
One of the biggest concerns is false alerts caused by either mistakes in the system or poor prediction algorithms. Where the car dings the driver with an FCW even though the driver had a perfect window to respond to whatever is happening in front of them, or provides an FCW even though there isn’t a collision risk present.
One example that one of my colleagues experienced was while starting to move within two left turning lanes. The light had just turned green and both lanes started moving. He was in the right of the two lanes and suddenly a car in the left lane crossed to the right as he/she decided to go straight instead of turning. Passing in front of him. My colleague was moving slowly as he had just started moving and noticed it the moment the guy suddenly made this illegal move (the other driving had gunned it). However, he didn’t have a chance to respond faster than the car throwing a FCW. He did respond and he responded quickly and never came anywhere near the car. But the FCW went off regardless and dinged his safety score, costing him additional money.
That wasn’t my colleague’s fault, and he couldn’t do anything about it. He responded properly and calmly (although confused that anyone would even think about doing something like let alone actually do it). The other car was completely in the wrong and would have gotten quite the ticket if an officer had seen that. But my colleague responded the only way he could, as fast as he could, and the right way. Yet he is punished for that by having to pay a higher premium the next month. He was furious.
Then, just a few days later, he is passing an accident that had just happened on a small street. Only one of the vehicles (a truck) involved was still in the street while the other was somewhere in someone’s front yard. The street had a number of lanes and he was in the left-most. The truck was in the middle two-way left turn lane (the middle lane with the yellow lines you can use from either side), spun around and nearly facing my colleague at a diagonal angle (it was a bad accident). The truck wasn’t moving and the lane my colleague was in was safe to continue as the truck wasn’t crossing over into it. He slowed his speed to around 15mph and passed the truck to get to the light that was up ahead.
However, for some reason the parked/crashed truck confused his Tesla (possibly the angle of it) resulting in a FCW that went off as he passed it. Freaked him out as he didn’t expect it and it startled him. He said his fight or flight response from firing as he though maybe another car was busy looking at the accident and might have crossed over into his lane close to him. But wait, how could that be since he was looking forward the whole time and nothing was there. Once again, he was furious. The same day, just minutes later, it went off again when a car around 6-7 car lengths ahead of him decided to rapidly slow down out of nowhere. He didn’t even have a chance to slow down himself (and he had plenty of space to slow down via the regen braking due to the distance) before the warning went off.
Therefore, its ability to predict frontal collision risks is far from perfect and much more like a beta than anything else. But he has to pay for that. He has to pay for its inability to properly predict using what appears to be chaotic or broken algorithms.
After the second time that happened, he was so startled, confused, and furious about it all, he turned around and went home. Ending his remaining errands he had planned. He said driving shouldn’t make you that anxious/frustrated and he needed time to cool off. This is coming from a man that I know best as the one always smiling and having a good laugh. Always friendly, always polite to others. And here he is ending his day so that he can cool off from suffering from too much anxiety?
My other two colleagues had similar stories of their own and I could go on all day sharing all of them (which would make for a long story). I just found his interesting as well as the videos when I watched them. If he still has them saved, I will have to share them in an update later on. They made for a perfect example of the stories I have been hearing all this time from them. But there are still so many more.
Like where is the FCW when you are about to hit a pothole or an object in the road the fell out of another vehicle? There isn’t one. If you are using FSD the vehicle will run right into or over it without even thinking twice. If you’re driving, it won’t throw any warnings or precautions at you. But it’s ok for it to make mistakes.
So with Tesla Insurance, your insurance doesn’t always go up because of the mistakes you make. It also goes up because the mistakes other people around you make that you have no control over. It also goes up because of mistakes the system makes due to the false alerts or poor predictions.
Maybe it would be smart for Tesla to remove frontal collision warnings as a penalty or replace with an analytic that is a lot more stable/accurate. At least until the company can make sense of it. Because that is far too much stress.
That being said, if you live in a busy city, do not get Tesla Insurance. The price is tempting, sure. But it will likely drive you mad and take away the comfort of being able to drive such a relaxing car. You will hate traffic more than normal, your blood pressure will be high, and you might even find yourself driving less in order to not even deal with it all.
The answer is as simple as that. It is absolutely best to avoid the added anxiety that you get with dealing with all these false alerts and annoyances that causes you financial pain and suffering. Instead, take yourself on a relaxing drive with no concerns or added drama beyond the other traffic on the road. Go with another company that doesn’t monitor you with broken predictions. Or better yet, one that doesn’t monitor you at all. No one likes a backseat driver. Especially, if that backseat driver is an angry DMV worker that is half-blind and suffering from dementia.
If you live in the middle of nowhere, do get Tesla Insurance since there won’t be a lot of traffic to throw it off. Drive safely and you’ll likely always have a 99 or even a 100 score.
I know I personally won’t ever use Tesla’s insurance and I too may one day own a Tesla as they are a lot of fun to drive (at least, when you aren’t paranoid about every move you or others make on the road). But then again, if the rest of the car is anything like the safety score system, I may end up going with another vehicle all together if they don’t figure this out soon. As I personally have no interest in living in the middle of nowhere.
