Tesla Insurance stops penalizing forward colision warnings after getting sued for ‘fake’ alerts

Tesla Insurance has stopped penalizing drivers for having forward collision warnings after getting sued for what drivers described as fake crash alerts

Like many modern vehicles, Teslas have forward collision warnings that alert drivers to a perceived risk of a collision.

These alerts can be lifesavers, but they also tend to give you false positives.

Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem—better safe than sorry—but in Tesla’s case, it can be a costly problem for drivers.

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Tesla offers its own car insurance in some US states. The automaker utilizes its capacity to collect real-time driving data from its vehicles to create what it calls a “Safety Score. ” This score is based on how and when drivers drive, and the company increases or decreases their monthly premium accordingly.

The move was to counter the fact that many third-party insurers were charging costly premiums on Tesla vehicles.

There has been some controversy about the factors that would influence the score, like acceleration, driving at night, and the aforementioned collision warnings. 

Many drivers have reported that their vehicles are giving collision warnings for no reason, leading to significant increases in their insurance premiums.

The issue has even led to an ongoing class action lawsuit filed in 2023 to address the problem.

Two years later, Tesla quietly removed forward collision warnings as a factor in its insurance ‘safety score’.

It was removed as part of its Safety Score ^Beta version 2.2 update, which, interestingly, only listed this change:

Excessive Speeding is now measured as a proportion of driving time in excess of 85 mph or speeding in relation to the vehicle in front of you.

But forward collision warnings are gone when looking at the list of factors affecting your safety score.

Electrek’s Take

While I don’t have Tesla Insurance and I don’t want any, I can tell you that my Tesla vehicles have had way more “fake” collision warnings than real ones.

I don’t mind them since I prefer to be safe rather than possibly annoyed by a useless warning.

With that said, fake warnings can’t affect your premiums. That’s just ridiculous. I’m sure that the removal from the safety score bodes well for the lawsuit.