A recent study by Davidoff Law Personal Injury Lawyers found the top ten car models most likely to crash in self-driving mode. The dataset includes incidents involving various vehicle manufacturers, models, and automation levels, with sales data incorporated for fair comparison. Key metrics considered include total crashes, total units sold, and crashes per 10K vehicles sold, which provides a relative crash risk assessment. The final ranking for car models most likely to crash in self-driving mode is based on crashes per 10K vehicles sold.
| Manufacturer | Number of Crashes | Type of System | Model | Sold cars | Crashes Per 10K Sold Cars |
| Jaguar | 918 | ADS | I-Pace | 131,860 | 69.6193 |
| Tesla | 2,708 | ADAS | Model Y, Model 3 | 2,362,466 | 11.4626 |
| JLR | 62 | ADS | I-Pace | 74,387 | 8.3348 |
| Rivian | 12 | ADAS | R1S | 116,345 | 1.0314 |
| Kenworth Motor Truck Co | 13 | ADS | T680 | 560,000 | 0.2321 |
| BMW | 63 | ADAS | iX xDrive50, X5 | 5,242,185 | 0.1202 |
| Subaru | 119 | ADAS | Forester | 10,249,838 | 0.1161 |
| ACURA | 35 | ADAS | MDX, TLX | 3,332,896 | 0.1050 |
| Mercedes-Benz | 39 | ADAS | S580 | 5,704,671 | 0.0684 |
| HONDA | 122 | ADAS | Civic | 23,757,953 | 0.0514 |
To access the full research, please follow this link.
Jaguar leads the ranking with 69.62 crashes per 10K vehicles sold. The I-Pace model, utilizing a fully automated driving system (ADS), recorded 918 crashes with a relatively small fleet of 131,860 vehicles. This crash rate is over six times higher than Tesla’s and more than eight times higher than JLR’s I-Pace variant, even though both use similar technology.
Tesla follows in second place with 11.46 crashes. With 2,708 reported incidents across its Model Y and Model 3 vehicles, Tesla has the highest absolute number of crashes in the study. However, its crash rate is six times lower than Jaguar’s, with nearly 18 times more vehicles on the road.
JLR secures the third position with 8.33 crashes. The I-Pace variant with ADS technology shows similar safety concerns, although it has fewer total incidents (62). This is eight times lower than Jaguar’s and three times lower than Tesla’s, while it uses the same technology as Jaguar. JLR also has the lowest sales volume in the top 10 with only 74,387 vehicles sold.
Rivian holds the fourth spot with 1.03 crashes. The R1S model represents a significant improvement in safety compared to the top three manufacturers, with a crash rate eight times lower than JLR’s and 11 times lower than Tesla’s.
Kenworth Motor Truck Company comes in fifth with 0.23 crashes. Despite using full ADS technology in its T680 truck model like Jaguar and JLR, Kenworth achieves a crash rate 36 times lower than JLR’s and 302 times lower than Jaguar’s.
BMW takes the sixth position with 0.12 crashes. The German manufacturer’s models perform twice as well as Kenworth’s, 86 times better than JLR’s, and 580 times better than Jaguar’s top-ranked I-Pace.
Subaru appears at seventh with 0.12 crashes. While matching BMW’s crash rate, Subaru’s Forester experiences nearly twice as many total incidents (119) as BMW (63). Subaru’s crash rate is slightly higher than Acura’s, while both use similar ADAS technology.
Acura places eighth with 0.11 crashes. The luxury division of Honda performs 57% better than Mercedes-Benz in crash rates, though Mercedes has a significantly larger fleet of vehicles.
Mercedes-Benz sits at ninth with 0.07 crashes. The S580 model demonstrates 40% better safety performance than Acura’s models and performs 71% better than BMW’s vehicles, despite all three being luxury brands with ADAS technology.
Honda rounds out the list at tenth with 0.05 crashes. With the largest sales in the study at nearly 23.8 million Civic models, Honda achieved the lowest crash rate among all manufacturers, 58% lower than BMW, despite having over four times as many vehicles on the road as Mercedes-Benz.
Ruben Davidoff, Managing Partner at Davidoff Law Personal Injury Lawyers, commented on the study: “The disparity between ADS and ADAS systems suggests we may be deploying fully autonomous technology before it’s truly ready for consumer roads. Luxury manufacturers appear to be prioritizing being first-to-market with advanced features over thorough safety testing, while the inconsistency in crash rates across similar technologies suggests significant variations in implementation quality and safety protocols among manufacturers. As self-driving capabilities continue expanding across the automotive sector, regulators should consider standardized safety benchmarks that all autonomous systems must meet before deployment, regardless of price point or market positioning—especially considering how crash rates don’t necessarily correlate with technological sophistication.”
Photo by Sarmad Mughal: