[natch]

Most minor fender benders are not reported by the involved people, whereas even the most minor ones often caused by other humans must be assiduously reported by any company doing such a rollout.

A responsible journalist with half a clue would mention that, and tell us how that distorts the numbers. If we correct for this distortion, it’s clear that the truth would come out in Tesla’s favor here.

Instead the writer embraces the distortion, trying to make Tesla look bad, and one is left to wonder if they are intentionally pushing a biased narrative.

[bryanlarsen]

Every 40,000 miles is every 2nd year for the average American. Every 500,000 miles is once in a lifetime for the average American.

Using your own personal experience, it should be obvious that trivial fender benders are more common than once per lifetime but significantly less common than one every couple of years.

[natch]

My household alone has had two fender benders in the past six weeks, one of which will not be reported (and, maybe not relevant, both the fault of other drivers). Zooming out in time they are less common but most are unreported. The big question would be whether the 40,000 number includes unreported incidents.