Bad Newz for Trial Lawyers—Tesla Full Self Driving Is Saving Lives
🚗 The Car Drove Better Than I Did
Why Tesla FSD Already Won the Safety Argument — And Why the System Still Won’t Let It Win
36,640 Americans died on the road last year.
We may already have the technology to dramatically reduce that number.
The real question is no longer whether the machines can drive.
The real question is:
who financially benefits from keeping them permanently “almost ready”?
⚡ I Let My Tesla Drive 13,000 Miles
I recently drove thirteen thousand miles using the latest version of Tesla Full Self-Driving.
For roughly 96% of the trip, I did nothing.
No steering.
No braking.
No throttle.
The car merged onto I-95, navigated traffic, handled stop-and-go congestion, changed lanes, and dealt with the kind of South Florida chaos that turns ordinary commuters into caffeinated lunatics. And here’s the uncomfortable part:
👉 It was driving better than I was.
Not perfectly. Let’s be honest about that. FSD still hesitates. Still makes occasional weird decisions. Still has moments that make you tense up. But on lane discipline, following distance, reaction time, and distraction avoidance? It’s already a more disciplined driver than the average human being.
Including me.
😳 The Moment That Changed My Mind
During one stretch of stop-and-go traffic, something happened that rattled me. I nodded off. Just for a second or two. The ride had become so smooth and predictable that some primitive part of my brain quietly decided it could relax. Then I caught myself.
Heart pounding.
Hands tightening on the wheel.
Instant adrenaline.
And that’s when I realized something important: The danger wasn’t that the car was bad. The danger was that the car was good enough to make me trust it. That’s the entire story right there.
📉 Meanwhile, 36,640 Americans Died
According to federal estimates, 36,640 Americans died on U.S. roads in 2025. That was actually considered an “improvement.” Think about how insane that sentence is. We are still losing the equivalent of a mid-sized stadium full of people every year because human beings are:
distracted 📱
drunk 🍺
exhausted 😴
speeding 🚓
texting 💬
emotionally unstable 🤯
or simply not very good drivers
Now ask the question nobody wants to ask out loud: What if autonomous driving cuts fatalities by 35%? That’s roughly 12,800 lives saved every year.
At 50%? Over 18,000.
At 70%? More than 25,000 people go home instead of to a morgue.
Even if Tesla’s numbers are exaggerated… Even if critics are partially right… Even if the technology is only half as effective as enthusiasts claim…it still saves thousands of lives annually. That should matter.
💊 We Fast-Track Cancer Drugs. Why Not This?
Here’s the analogy I can’t stop thinking about. When a cancer drug shows meaningful success in even 20–30% of patients, the FDA often fast-tracks approval. Why? Because allowing people to die while waiting for perfect data is itself a moral decision. But put a steering wheel on the technology…and suddenly society demands perfection before it can save a single life. That standard makes no sense.
🔒 The real obstacle isn’t the car.
It’s who gets sued when the car finally drives itself.
