1. Who is legally liable when an autonomous car crashes?
The debate centers on whether the driver, the vehicle, or the manufacturer bears responsibility.
- “If the car that did a hit‑and‑run was operated autonomously the insurance of the maker of that car should pay.” – sroussey
- “The point is if the liability is always exclusively with the human driver then any system in that car is at best a ‘driver assist’.” – close04
2. Tesla’s insurance arm is not a profit‑maker.
Many users point out that Tesla’s own insurance product is operating at a loss, which is why it is offered at very low rates.
- “They have a loss ratio of >100% … Tesla Insurance product … was unprofitable.” – Veserv
- “Tesla Insurance … is losing money on their insurance to boost sales.” – redanddead
3. FSD is still a supervised, not fully autonomous, system – safety is mixed.
Opinions diverge on how safe Tesla’s “Full Self‑Driving” is and whether it truly removes the driver’s role.
- “FSD is still a supervised system (= ADAS), afaik.” – aint
- “FSD is not safe and will never be safe.” – ErroneousBosh
- “FSD is safer than manual driving” – claim cited by several users (e.g., gizmo686).
4. The business model is shifting from ownership to subscription/insurance‑bundled services.
Tesla’s strategy is to make FSD a paid subscription that is bundled with its own insurance, reducing the need for customers to buy a separate insurer.
- “Tesla is happy that Lemonade offers this. It makes Tesla cars more attractive to buyers without Tesla doing the work of starting an insurance company in every state.” – kjksf
- “Tesla’s FSD is a subscription, not a feature you own.” – aunt (implicit in many comments).
5. Data sharing and privacy concerns are a major issue.
Users worry that Tesla’s telemetry is being sold to third‑party insurers and that this data could be used for pricing or other purposes.
- “Tesla provides data to Lemonade.” – kjksf
- “Tesla’s data shows that Full Self‑Driving miles are twice as safe as manual driving.” – gizmo686 (used to justify the data‑driven discount).
- “Tesla’s data is being used to price insurance, but the data is not transparent.” – redanddead (implied).
These five themes capture the core of the discussion: liability, profitability, safety, business model, and data privacy.