Analysis: Cybertruck Fatality Rate Far Exceeds That of Ford Pinto

An analysis from FuelArc calls out Tesla’s Cybertruck for having a higher fatality rate than the infamous Ford Pinto, reports Julianne McShane in Mother Jones. Since they were released a year ago, Cybertrucks have a fatality rate of 14.5 per 100,000 units; the Pinto had a fatality rate 17 times lower, at 0.85 fatalities per 100,000 units over its nine years of existence.

The authors acknowledge the limits of their analysis, noting that Tesla will not publicly release the actual number of Cybertrucks sold, and that the analysis includes the self-inflicted death of a soldier in a Cybertruck in Las Vegas last month. (Discounting that death would still give Cybertrucks a fatality rate of 11.6 per 100,000 units — 13 time that of the Pinto.)

However, the analysis makes a point: when Ford Pintos were involved in fatal crashes, the NHTSA investigated, and Ford recalled 1.5 million vehicles before ending production in 1980. Meanwhile, the Cybertruck “has reportedly not been crash-tested by the NHTSA or the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, nor has Tesla released its own safety data on the Cybertruck.” The vehicle was also recalled seven times last year, “including once over a trapped accelerator pedal that could increase the risk of a crash, estimated to affect more than 3,800 units, according to the NHTSA.”