How to increase your Tesla Safety Score

If you've opted-in to Tesla's assessment of your driving behavior, then you're likely trying to get access to Tesla's FSD Beta. In order to do that you'll need as high of a score as possible. The higher the score, the sooner you'll be granted access to the FSD Beta.

Tesla's very transparent about how your Safety Score is calculated. We'll share some information for each category Tesla is grading and also share some tips on how you can improve your score.

There are five categories that Tesla is actively measuring drivers against. It's important to be familiar with them, as not everything counts toward your Safety Score. Your performance in each category is measured to the median of Tesla's fleet.

Forward Collision Warnings (FCWs)

First, we have Forward Collision Warnings. This is the car giving you a warning that you're going at a high rate of speed relative to the distance you have to the object directly in front of you.

Tesla bases this off the ‘medium' setting in FCW. I'd recommend going to Autopilot > Forward Collision Warning and setting your personal alert level to ‘Early'. This way you'll be made aware of the potential collision before Tesla dings you for it.

There's not much to this one, except to keep your distance and slow down before you get too close to the vehicle or object in front of you.

Hard Braking

This is a tough one and the one I've struggled with the most. You'll want to very gradually slow down when coming to a stop. Quite a bit more than you'd likely think you need to. One harsh stop and you'll be dinged.

Tesla identifies hard braking as a backward acceleration greater than a g-force of 0.3. I personally love to take full advantage of the car's regenerative braking. So if I have a shorter distance to stop, I'll let my foot off the accelerator a little quicker to receive a higher level of regen, but doing so exceeds the 0.3g Tesla specifies and will set you back. Brake early and gradually to avoid any negative scores due to hard braking.

Aggressive Turning

Similar to harsh braking, Tesla is looking at the g-forces here when determining aggressive turning. If the lateral g-force exceeds 0.4g, then your score may be affected.

You'll want to make sure you're not going faster around turns. The tighter the turn, the slower you'll want to go.

Unsafe Following

This is the distance between you and the vehicle in front of you. It's similar to Forward Collision Warnings in that you'll want to make sure you leave enough room to stop between you and the vehicle in front of you, but Unsafe Following is only calculated when you're traveling above 50 MPH. An easy way to avoid penalties here is to use Autopilot with a follow distance greater than 3.

Forced Autopilot Disengagement

This is the act of using Autopilot and having it become disengaged because you didn't heed the warnings of applying pressure to the steering wheel. Not applying enough resistance on the steering wheel will not affect you here, neither will the car beeping. It is only considered a forced disengagement if the vehicle asks you to apply resistance three times and then disables Autopilot for the remainder of the trip.

Keep in mind that Autopilot will also be disabled if you exceed 90 MPH for vehicles with radar or 80 MPH for vision-only vehicles, while on Autopilot.

Tips

Although, I don't personally encourage this tip, as we want everyone to be fair, there is currently a way of having your drive not count toward your Safety Score. If you do a soft reset before you park your car, the drive will not be registered and will not count toward your overall Safety Score. This will likely be fixed in a future update.

Each driving category is weighted differently. So having Autopilot disabled isn't the same as having an instance of harsh braking.

Here is how much each category negatively affects your score, from the worst offender to the least.

• Forced Autopilot Disengagement
• Hard Braking
• Aggressive Turning
• Unsafe Following
• Forward Collision Warnings

Autopilot

While you're driving on Autopilot your score is not negatively affected, even if the car follows too closely or gets a FCW. Tesla simply ignores any bad driving if Autopilot is engaged. You may want to consider using Autopilot in more situations when you feel it's safe.

If you're using Autopilot on city streets, remember to disengage it with plenty of time before your turn so that you can slow down gradually before taking the turn.

Acceleration

Although acceleration or speeding do not negatively affect your score, it could result in sudden braking or Forward Collision Warnings, which would impact your Safety Score.

Other Metrics

Tesla collects a lot of information on how we use our cars. They use this information to improve features, roll out new ones and make their cars safer.

Although Tesla is showing us these five metrics that they're using to assess your Safety Score, Tesla could potentially use more information than just your Safety Score when choosing the next batch of beta testers. They're probably not looking for individuals who are driving 200 miles a day, or those that are rarely driving. You'll probably want to be in a sweet spot where you drive most days, but aren't taking long trips.

Tesla may also use information that is out of your control such as your geographical region or how long you've had your car.

Use Other Cars

If you're already driving your Tesla most days, don't take the chance of ruining a good score. If you're in a rush or already drove your Tesla today, consider taking a spouse's car when possible.

Save your Tesla for driving on familiar roads, roads where you know when a sharp turn may be coming up or where stop signs are. Use your Tesla when you have the extra time to take it slow and really focus on the road.

Lastly, be safe. We all want a high Safety Score, but at the end of the day we all need to come home in one piece.

If you're looking to figure out how many miles you'll need to drive to reach a specific score, such as 99, I strongly recommend using our Safety Score Calculator that will give you exactly that answer. After adding your data, you can choose a target score and know exactly how much more you'll need to drive to achieve your goal.

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Tesla Is Now Offering Cybertruck Test Drives [List of Locations]

@brandonhd

Tesla has begun to reach out to customers in the United States and is offering demo drives of the Cybertruck on an invite-only basis. @brandonhd on X shared the first invite image, and it looks like it's going out quite quickly to multiple locations that have Cybertrucks on display.

Up until now, display vehicles have been for just that – looking, but no touching. Some Tesla delivery centers and showrooms have also allowed viewers to take a seat inside and open it up, but most are still locked away behind the velvet rope.

It’s exciting to see that Tesla has begun to demo them – and it can only be so long until demo drives open up to everyone.

Advisor-led Demo

This Demo Drive is led by a Tesla Advisor – while you’re driving, the advisor will be in the passenger seat, walking you through the experience. They’ll explain steer-by-wire, off-road controls, and will introduce new-to-Tesla buyers to all the features that are currently available.

Once FSD V12.5 comes to the Cybertruck, we’re sure they’ll be demoing its capabilities FSD capabilities as well.

Locations

The list of locations so far for demo drives appears to be fairly limited, but we will hopefully see demo drives roll out throughout the United States, and eventually Canada too. Here is the current list of city/state locations that have seen demo drive invites.

• Manhasset, New York

• West Covina, California

• Los Angeles, California

• Houston, Texas

• Orlando, Florida

• Westmont, Illinois

• Tucson, Arizona

• Phoenix, Arizona

• Delaware

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Musk Confirms 'Actually Smart Summon' is Coming in a Revision of FSD V12.5

Not a Tesla App

Actually Smart Summon, the successor to Tesla’s Smart Summon feature, has been confirmed to be coming as soon as next month as per Elon Musk. Colloquially known as “ASS”, Actually Smart Summon is supposed to improve on the regular Smart Summon capabilities, which have historically used ultrasonic sensors (USS) to navigate parking lots.

We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon, and we’re quite excited about what other features will be unlocked once it finally shows up at our doorstep.

Vision-based Improvements

ASS is supposed to bring Smart Summon to vehicles that don’t have USS – using Tesla Vision. Most recently, Tesla has brought Autopark to vehicles without USS, and Vision-based Autopark has been a huge success. It is faster, more reliable, and smoother than the older USS-based solution. It can also park and maneuver in tighter locations.

Just recently, Tesla returned the Model X’s self-presenting doors, using Tesla Vision. Vision has seen some fantastic improvements, and many people are waiting for ASS to bring forth these improvements to Smart Summon.

Smart Summon Today

Today, Smart Summon is sometimes useful at best, usually a party trick, or downright dangerous at worst. It’s excellent and best used in straight lines, where you have a clear line of sight of the vehicle, and can stop it if doesn’t see an obstacle.

I used Smart Summon today, just before writing this article – my 2022 Model Y (with USS) – did manage to show up just fine – in a straight-line location from where I was parked, after exiting the parking spot fairly cleanly. However, I’ve previously used Smart Summon and have had the vehicle turn towards obstacles, such as cart returns or curbs. Overall, it’s a sometimes-useful feature that has a lot of drawbacks right now.

Smart Summon is also restricted to a certain distance – and it's pretty small. The max distance is shorter than most parking lots, being only about 215 ft (65m). If you’re lucky enough to park close, it's very useful to bring your car right to you.

Actually Smart Summon

ASS will bring FSD V12-like capabilities to Smart Summon – the vehicle will primarily use Vision to drive toward you (or the location you’ve indicated). ASS has been supposed to be coming since about September 2022 and has seen many delays – we’re almost at the 2-year point today.

We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon being able to bring the vehicle – safely – right to you. ASS is also one of the key steps towards bringing some other cool features that Elon Musk has previously mentioned – Park Seek and Banish Autopark.

We’re also hopeful that Actually Smart Summon will increase the maximum range a vehicle can be summoned, because the current range is fairly small. Alongside Park Seek and Banish Autopark, we’re closing in on a Robotaxi-based future.

Park Seek and Banish Autopark

When the FSD v12.4 showed up, Elon also mentioned that going forward, vehicles would automatically park themselves when arriving in a parking lot – Park Seek – and that if you got out of the car at the entrance to a business, you could get it to automatically park itself in the parking lot – Banish Autopark. These are two features that are needed for Robotaxi to work – which itself is delayed to October 10^th of this year. We’re looking quite forward to them – as in combination with Actually Smart Summon, Tesla has reached the cusp of vehicle autonomy.

A vehicle that arrives, driverless, at the location you’re at, then drives somewhere, parks itself there, and waits for you – is the definition of a Robotaxi.

While we’re likely to have to wait for Banish Autopark and Park Seek just a bit longer, Actually Smart Summon being around the corner is exciting! Gone will be the days of having to run out to your car when you forgot your umbrella – your car will just come right to you instead.

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