Suddenly Tesla isn’t so cool anymore and must return to the drawing board

livemint.com:

fire in an accident or due to electrical malfunction, special equipment and training are required to douse the flames due to the fears of persistent short-circuits. Firemen and police departments may not always have either the training or the equipment on hand. The new data offers a better ability to track safety since data will be updated monthly.

There are several million cars on US roads with semi-autonomous crash avoidance systems. Twelve car companies operating in the US reported 400 crashes to the NHTSA involving vehicles with partially autonomous driver assistance. Honda reported 90 crashes, the second highest after Tesla.

The NHTSA requires crashes to be reported if partially automated systems were operating up to 30 seconds before a crash, and these include incidents such as airbag deployment, pedestrian and cyclist collisions, or hospitalisation. But the report also noted that there may be glitches in recording and reporting real-time data. Tesla’s Elon Musk has said self-driving is “really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or worth basically zero".

Tesla does have fantastic valuations at the stock market, way ahead of other carmakers. Tesla has a price-earnings ratio of 75-plus, while Toyota (9x PE), Honda (8x PE), and General Motors (4XPE) have valuations at a fraction of Tesla’s. Apple and Google are also eager to start building autonomous vehicles.