Tesla claims its full self-driving (FSD) saves lives, but wants you to pay $99 a month to get it

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It is estimated that in 2025 there will be 36,640 traffic deaths in the United States. Let’s delve into car safety over the years and into the future.

History of seat belts for safety.

• The first patent for a seat belt was filed by Edward J. Claghorn in 1885, designed specifically for horse-drawn carriages.
• Nash was the first American manufacturer to offer seat belts as an option in 1949.
• Three point design — Nils Bohlin’s patented three-point seat belt design in 1959 revolutionized safety and became standard in vehicles, starting with the Volvo of 1959. Bohlin felt morally obligated to offer his invention to all automakers at no cost.
• In 1968, all cars sold in the United States were required to have seat belts.
• In the 1970s, many countries began enacting laws requiring seat belt use, which significantly reduced deaths.
• The latest seat belts incorporate advanced features such as pretensioners, load limiters and smart sensors, improving passenger safety during collisions.
• It was not enough to have seat belts in all cars. Seat belt use is now required by law in all US states except New Hampshire.

Airbags for car safety

Airbags became mandatory in all new passenger cars sold in the United States beginning September 1, 1998, following the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991.

However, while airbags save lives, they also cause injuries. A few weeks ago, my daughter was in a car accident in which the airbags deployed. In his case, an air bag shattered his left wrist, causing a compound fracture (bone that penetrates the skin). This illustrates the potential double-edged sword of security innovations.

The history of seat belts shows how an innovation that was at first a novelty later became commonplace and then, when the saving of lives became evident, the use of seat belts became mandatory.

Where do we stand on safety in the evolution of driving automation like Tesla’s full self-driving?

April 8, 2026: Elon Musk reclaimed that tesla‘yes “Full Be–Driving”is so much safer than human drivers that it could save 90% of about a million lives lost in car accidents worldwide.

An embarrassing personal story: On June 9, I was driving my 2018 Tesla Model 3 in Madison, Wisconsin, in fully autonomous mode. At an intersection, I went onto FSD Highway and ran a stop sign. I was hit in the back of my car by a woman who wasn’t paying much attention and was crossing the intersection perpendicularly. I am sure that if I had let FSD drive the car, we would have stopped at the stop sign and the accident would have been avoided. Fortunately, my wife and I were not injured and neither was the woman driving the other car. The woman in the other car was probably saved from injury by her seat belt.

FSD does not use alcohol or drugs, does not text, and does not fall asleep. If you also speculate about how often drivers do not pay close attention for many reasons and how often they make poor decisions while driving, it doesn’t take much speculation to imagine how often accidents could be avoided with FSD. Also check out recent news from Waymo for more information on this topic.

On the other hand, there have been numerous reports that the Tesla FSD has caused accidents and we do not have complete public data on this matter.

Not only is Tesla charging $99 a month for its undoubtedly life-saving FSD technology, but a few months ago it removed a potentially life-saving technology (automatic lane centering) as a standard feature on all of its new cars. Motivation: Get more people to pay $99 a month for FSD.

How is this morally defensible? Tesla has probably spent billions of dollars developing FSD up to this point. Tesla has a large team of engineers working to improve the FSD and continues to train it in billions of traffic situations on a huge supercomputer. Tesla has also installed upgraded cameras and computers that make it possible to run the latest version of FSD V14 in all of its new cars from mid-2023. FSD is not perfect now and it makes some sense for Tesla to receive an influx of money so it can continue to afford to improve it. But is the price of more traffic deaths now worth it?

It could be much like the story of the seat belt of the past, which went from a novelty to a sophisticated, proven and necessary feature in all cars. We’re probably still in the novelty stage with self-driving systems. In fact, self-driving systems are much more complex than seat belts. Tesla’s patented FSD is arguably by far the most comprehensive and best performing self-driving system operating in the entire United States today.

Tesla’s FSD isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. It simply needs to be significantly safer than human drivers to save some of the now ~370,000 people who die in traffic accidents in the US each year. I have been driving my 2026 Tesla Model Y with FSD V14 for 4 months. Tesla is required to call it “FSD Supervised” because it is not perfect. He still makes mistakes, for example, when selecting the lane at traffic lights and at the beginning and end (parking) of trips. There is endless speculation about when (if ever) it will be good enough to drop the “Supervised” qualifier. When will it be good enough to be able to text, read a book, and go to sleep while driving? When can you send your car to pick up the children from school? Tesla has a huge team of engineers training FSD with billions of traffic situations on a huge supercomputer working to reach the next level.

However, in my experience, FSD V14 is already very good! It has been perfect for me on the roads. I suppose it will be enough to remove the “supervised” rating on the roads in time for the next version (V15).

Have we reached the point where Tesla will be morally required to ensure that all new Teslas come with FSD as standard equipment? And will it be morally necessary to install the software on all Teslas that have the hardware capable of running the latest version of FSD? When will the company be morally obligated to offer FSD for free to any manufacturer willing to install the hardware necessary to run the FSD system? (Just like Nils Bohlin did with his patented 3-point seat belt design in 1959). Tesla’s patented superchargers were a huge step forward that made driving an electric vehicle cross-country practical in the US for the first time. Not many months ago, Tesla made its Superchargers available to all other manufacturers for the first time. Superchargers are now called North American Charging Standard (NACS) chargers and have truly become the North American standard for chargers. Aren’t we far from the time when FSD will be the universally adopted self-driving standard in the United States? Once again, the situation is not as simple as seat belts. Other manufacturers think that Tesla’s camera system will never be as good as systems that employ lidar and radar as well. This will certainly be true in the event of very bad weather. However, Tesla’s system seems much cheaper to implement and may be good enough. After all, human drivers also go off the road when the weather is extremely bad.

If you find any of my articles helpful, please use my referral link when purchasing a new Tesla: (Be sure to use it when you place your order.) Tesla keeps changing the program, but here’s the latest: If you buy a new Tesla Model 3 or Y and use my link, you’ll get two months of free full self-driving (a value of ~$200) on top of the month that comes free with every new Model Y right now. This will give you a total of 3 months of fully autonomous driving for free. After that, it will cost $99 a month. For a Cybertruck, you’ll get $1,000 off the purchase price. Right now, Tesla is offering one year of free Supercharging with the purchase of a new Model 3 Premium or Performance.