The claim also spread on other platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, X and Bluesky. Comments indicated that users appeared to believe the claim, with many speculating whether the purported fatality rate of Teslas was due to design or driver error.
The posts were correct in that the iSeeCars study did put Tesla in the top spot for the car brand with the highest occupant fatality rate, with 5.6 fatal crashes per billion vehicle miles. However, there are aspects of the study itself that are inaccessible; it uses iSeeCars' own vehicle miles data (which is not available to the public) as the "denominator" to normalize the data and reach this conclusion.
In other words, iSeeCars adjusted the number of fatal crashes so that the data was on a comparable scale using the total number of vehicle miles driven, which the site claims was estimated from iSeeCars' data of more than 8 million vehicles on the road in 2022 from model years 2018-22. The site has been unresponsive to our inquiries.
Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate of all car brands, followed by Kia, Buick, Dodge and Hyundai. As with the model rankings, it's possible these high fatal accident rates reflect driver behavior as much or more than vehicle design.
iSeeCars analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a nationwide census that provides automative death rate data to the U.S. government and the public. iSeeCars looked at cars of model years 2018-22 in crashes resulting in at least one occupant fatality, then broke down the findings into various categories, such as "The 23 Most Dangerous Cars," "Most Dangerous SUVs," "Most Dangerous Cars by Metro Area" and so on.
"To adjust for exposure, the number of cars involved in a fatal crash were normalized by the total number of vehicle miles driven, which was estimated from iSeeCars' data of over 8 million vehicles on the road in 2022 from model years 2018-2022," the study noted in the "Methodology" section.
Snopes wrote to the site in December 2024 asking whether the data for "total number of vehicle miles driven" was available to the public, how iSeeCars originally compiled the data and how it ensured accuracy. Snopes had not received a response as of this writing. Snopes also wrote to the site and Karl Brauer, the iSeeCars executive analyst, with general inquiries about the study in January 2025. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Although the findings of the iSeeCars study spread across social media, and many websites published the study, including Rolling Stone, MotorTrend and CarPro News, few reputable sources published the findings.
The nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety included three Tesla models in its most recent analysis of driver fatality rates (of 2020 and equivalent model year vehicles), none of which ranked in the report's top 20 cars with the highest rate of driver deaths.
In fact, the IIHS ranked Tesla's Model Y as 2024's top pick for safety. The IIHS and Highway Loss Data Institute conduct their own internal crash analyses to reach conclusions. A wide variety of auto insurers and insurance associations fund the IIHS and the HLDI.
Fatality rates for drivers in other cars involved in crashes with the three Tesla models the IIHS analyzed were all below average.
Joe Young, director of media relations at the IIHS, said via email that the organization does not conduct any overall analysis fatality rates by car brand, only by model.
In sum, while the claims across social media are correct in saying a study did find Tesla to have the highest fatal accident rate of any car brand, the study itself uses data that is not available to the public. Therefore, although this does not mean the data is incorrect, it does mean that ensuring the study's accuracy is not possible at this time.