Do electric vehicles make drivers safer?

Cambridge Mobile Telematics recently presented at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Highway Loss Data Institute as part of a "Charging into an Electrified Future" conference, an insurer-focused event on the impact of electrification on risk analysis.

CMT began this research in 2021 as part of its focus on the relationships between electric vehicles (EVs) and driving risk, a core element of CMT's mission to make the world's roads and drivers safer.

As major auto manufacturers and many governments announce aggressive goals for total fleet electrification, the work of understanding EV risk grows in importance. Electric vehicles display unique risk factors that are distinct from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

The key to reducing driver risk is a deeper understanding of the variables that impact their safety outcomes.

CMT's research highlights several key differences across vehicle types.

For example, they found that Tesla drivers demonstrate acceleration risks that range from 346% to 406% higher than the average ICE vehicle driver. These Tesla drivers also had 76% more cornering risk. However, on average, they were 35% less distracted by their smartphones than ICE vehicle drivers.

CMT also researched drivers who own and operate multiple vehicles and found that Tesla drivers are nearly 50% less likely to crash their Tesla than their ICE vehicle.

In contrast, Porsche drivers (including all Porsches, not just the all-electric Taycan) were 55% more likely to crash while driving their Porsche compared to their other ICE vehicles.

CMT continuously analyzes, validates and releases new risk factors. Its data science team is dedicated to research and development efforts to develop risk factors that are predictive of crashes.

The roads of the future, filled with EVs, will have a different risk profile than the roads we have today. The vehicles people drive, whether they're a high-performance Porsche or Tesla, traditional sedans, or compact hybrids, impact a driver's risk profile. In other words, the same driver can change risk profiles depending on the vehicle they're driving for a particular trip.

EVs are more susceptible to acceleration and speeding risk, and battery range and climate impact trip length and duration. These insights are just a start to understanding an electrified future.

CMT is the world's largest telematics service provider. Their AI-driven platform, DriveWell, gathers trillions of driving data points per day from millions of trips worldwide. They provide a risk score to their partners based on behavior analyses like hard braking, rapid acceleration, speeding, harsh cornering, phone distraction and more.