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Safety Score Impressions

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I recently signed up for the Tesla Insurance, so I got put on the Safety Score program. Here is what I am finding out.
Overall it is like a video game with a cash reward
It is impossible to pass a slower vehicle on a two lane road without getting dinged for following too close
On a four lane road when someone pulls in to your lane ahead of you, you will get dinged for following too close
Stopping for a stop light changing from green to red will get you to be dinged for hard braking
Automatic TACC disengagements are not showing up. All of mine have been phantom disengagements.

In my case the difference between the 90 they give you and a 99 score is about $35 a month. This is a Beta program that has significant rewards but has bugs that can cost you some real money.
 
If you don't mind me asking, could you give us a little info about yourself and what you're paying? I'm in CA, and when I checked the cost of Tesla Insurance it was substantially more than what I pay through Geico.
 
Interesting to hear how the score works. I had a score of 92 and it showed, following to close and hard braking to be the items reducing the score. I'm well into my 70s and can tell you, I haven't braked hard in many years and 'following', my cruise control is set for five car lengths, which BTW is a pain in the ass ass. When you're on the highway, other drivers are using the gap I leave to pass other cars on the right. You leave that much room and you're in danger and constantly cut off.
I've reduced it to four, we'll see. I haven't caused an accident for the last 30 years and one ticket in 2004 in NJ for speeding in a new BMW 750. said I was going 53 in a 45, I couldn't feel it and I guess the town needed money.
I think the scoring should be taken with a grain of salt and further evaluation, especially if they base the rates on it.
 
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I have noticed that there is no deduction for hard acceleration. So when you come to a stoplight going from green to red just press hard on the go pedal and cruise through the intersection at 85 or so. This is the way Tesla encourages safe driving. As for the following too close driving between the hours os of 2 am to 4 am helps limit exposure.
 
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The key to the safety score is slowing down way way way ahead of time .. The braking hard score is based upon dropping no more than 6 mph a second and it doesn’t matter if you don’t touch the brake pedal it will still count for hard braking so you really need to feather the pedal because of the strong regen ..I have a 100 score with over 300 miles. If you need to slow down quickly use the autopilot for braking ..if your traveling over 50 mph use the autopilot and don’t disengage it intill you Know for sure that the car ahead of you is at least 5 car lengths ahead ..if you override the autopilot with the go pedal and a car is within 5 car lengths you will get docked for following to closely ..if someone cuts you off and you press on the brake you will get docked for following too closely
 
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I recently signed up for the Tesla Insurance, so I got put on the Safety Score program. Here is what I am finding out.
Overall it is like a video game with a cash reward
It is impossible to pass a slower vehicle on a two lane road without getting dinged for following too close
On a four lane road when someone pulls in to your lane ahead of you, you will get dinged for following too close
Stopping for a stop light changing from green to red will get you to be dinged for hard braking
Automatic TACC disengagements are not showing up. All of mine have been phantom disengagements.

In my case the difference between the 90 they give you and a 99 score is about $35 a month. This is a Beta program that has significant rewards but has bugs that can cost you some real money.
I recently upped my score from a 95 (caused by my daughter driving and following too closely to a 100. Took a while from 95 to 99; to a 100 took a 1224 mile trip much of which was hand driven. If I read and understand the FAQs correctly nothing done on AP dings you. I give myself plenty of room to pass on 2 lanes and on the four lanes I engaged the AP if suspected someone might cut back in in front of me. I keep following distance to 7 car lengths regardless of how close thought I am rarely less than 3 seconds behind someone; I don't know if that tricks the algorithm. Around traffic lights I have used a lot of AP. So improving can be done; just takes some work and some hacks. At least something worked for me and I am back up to 100 safety score.
 
The key to the safety score is slowing down way way way ahead of time .. The braking hard score is based upon dropping no more than 6 mph a second and it doesn’t matter if you don’t touch the brake pedal it will still count for hard braking so you really need to feather the pedal because of the strong regen ..I have a 100 score with over 300 miles. If you need to slow down quickly use the autopilot for braking ..if your traveling over 50 mph use the autopilot and don’t disengage it intill you Know for sure that the car ahead of you is at least 5 car lengths ahead ..if you override the autopilot with the go pedal and a car is within 5 car lengths you will get docked for following to closely ..if someone cuts you off and you press on the brake you will get docked for following too closely
Blowing through changing traffic signals also helps avoid hard braking. It took me a couple attempts to figure out that was killing my score.
 
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Blowing through changing traffic signals also helps avoid hard braking. It took me a couple attempts to figure out that was killing my score.
I just make sure I’m on autopilot when going thru a fast intersection when I get close I start pressing down on the stalk to confirm going thru ..if the light turns red I let the autopilot make the stop without touching the brake pedal that’s the only to prevent hard braking ding
 
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With everything possible turned OFF, my MYLR still has phantom braking, yellow splats for unsafe following, etc. I have unsafe following on trips of 10 miles where there was NEVER another vehicle in sight, including parked vehicles. I have missed a couple of days driving and found my score dropped from 100 to 99. While it was parked in the garage? WTF??? Yes, my expected premium went up $5 because apparently it was an unsafe garage? A smart way to calculate risk? Well, perhaps, depending on your point of view. Oh, BTW a couple of days ago - every single yellow splat over the whole 31 days, suddenly disappeared. Like they had never been there. . . . . .? But my score is still at 99 and they want their $5. So, yeah.
 
I'm glad to live in a state where Tesla's "safety score" cannot be used to determine insurance rates. Their system is completely arbitrary, and in some cases downright bullshit. As others have mentioned, getting dinged because some other car pulls out in front of you and you react appropriately is no way to allocate risk and cost. And what's this "turning too fast" crap that must be set so low that unless you are willing to piss off every other driver on the road, is going to negatively impact your score.
 
Always wondered how it works, thanks to all for info.
Sounds like this system sucks n i'll never be using it lol
If u live in a busy city, during peak times everyone drives like a Mad Max, its the only way to decrease traffic n i actually admire fast drivers.
Tesla should really judge the score by how fast driver reacts to danger vs when the car sees it or something along those lines...
I can drive 80-90 all day n hard brake n change lanes every few seconds n never cause an accident, knock knock.. clean record for many years...
Its all the other "safe" drivers that making me do it haha
In the end, u buy a Tesla for its fast acceleration/speed. if i wanted a grandpa car id get a buick :)