DETROIT, March 12 (Reuters) - Tesla's Autopilot

and Full Self Driving technology and nine other assisted-driving

systems marketed by major automakers received "poor" ratings

from the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in a new

study released on Tuesday.

The IIHS, a safety research arm of the insurance industry,

also said there is no evidence that Autopilot or other

assisted-driving systems have real-world safety benefits, based

on crash data.

"We are able to look at insurance claims data. We have been

able to look at vehicles with and without these (systems) and

determine there is no reduction in claims as a result of these

more advanced systems," IIHS President David Harkey told

Reuters.

By comparison, there is evidence that automatic emergency

braking systems cut rear-end collisions by 50% and cut incidents

of a vehicle hitting a pedestrian by 30%, he said.

Tesla and its chief executive, Elon Musk, have said that a

Tesla operating with Autopilot engaged is about 10 times safer

than the U.S. average and five times safer than a Tesla without

the technology enabled.

Federal regulators are investigating nearly 1,000 accidents

in which Tesla's Autopilot was in use. A civil case scheduled to

go to trial next week in California will be the latest test of

Tesla's strategy of blaming crashes on drivers who fail to heed

the EV maker's warnings to pay attention to the road when

Autopilot or Full Self Driving technology are engaged.

Tesla did not reply to an email seeking comment.

The IIHS study rated 14 assisted-driving systems from nine

automakers against standards it developed. The U.S. National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration has no formal standards

governing advanced-driver assistance systems, or ADAS in

industry terminology.

"There are no federal regulations, nor is there good

consistent guidance," Harkey said. "That was our reason for

putting these safeguards together."

Of the systems IIHS tested, only one earned an acceptable

rating: The Lexus Teammate with Advanced Drive, offered last

year on a small number of Toyota Motor's ( TM ) luxury Lexus

LS hybrid sedans.

"Toyota ( TM ) continuously aims to increase vehicle safety,"

Toyota ( TM ) said in a statement. "As a part of that effort, Toyota ( TM ),

among other things, considers performance in third-party testing

programs like NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program and IIHS's Top

Safety Pick program."

GM's Super Cruise and Nissan's ( NSANF ) "ProPILOT Assist

with Navi-link" offered on the 2023-2024 Ariya electric vehicle

received "marginal" overall ratings.

"We are evaluating the results from the first-ever Partial

Automation Safeguards test and will continue to work with IIHS

in all matters related to customer safety," Nissan ( NSANF ) said.

GM said in a statement that Super Cruise "is meant to serve

as an enhancement to the driving experience," not as a safety

feature.

Different assisted-driving systems from Tesla, Mercedes-Benz

, BMW, Nissan ( NSANF ), Ford, GM, Hyundai's

Genesis brand and Geely's Volvo Cars

brand received "poor" overall ratings, although all achieved

"good" scores on certain elements of the IIHS tests, the group

said.

"This new IIHS testing methodology does not assess the

performance of the driver assistance systems, instead it focuses

on safeguards to prevent misuse," Mercedes said in a statement.

"We take the findings of the IIHS partial driving automation

safeguard ratings very seriously."

Automakers could boost safety ratings by adopting existing

technology for functions such as driver-monitoring or attention

warnings that achieved "good" scores, Harkey said.

Tesla and other automakers are improving the capabilities of

their systems, the IIHS said. Tesla revised its Autopilot

software following a federal recall agreement, and IIHS will

test the updated system, Harkey said.

"We are certainly going to take in the results of these

tests as our cars and these systems continue to evolve," BMW

spokesman Jay Hanson said on Monday. BMW now offers in certain

U.S. models a more sophisticated driving-assistance system than

the one tested by the IIHS.

The Genesis GV80 SUV that launches in the U.S. this spring

will the first model in the Hyundai luxury brand with an

in-cabin camera to monitor the driver's face and eyes while

assisted driving is engaged. "This enhancement will also be

rolling out to future Genesis products in the coming months and

years," the company said.