US Edition
Robotaxis wreck 4x more than humans, and at least one Tesla wants to swim
Tesla's Austin Robotaxi fleet has 14 crashes, including one injury, at a rate over 4 times higher than human drivers, with details redacted in federal reports.
- In an updated NHTSA Standing General Order incident report, Tesla's filings show a total of 14 crashes in Austin since June 2025, with five new reports in January 2026.
- Tesla's operational shift to unsupervised rides in late January 2026 followed 4 crashes, with all five new incidents involving Model Y vehicles showing Tesla's autonomous driving system `verified engaged` and redacted narratives in the NHTSA SGO database.
- The filings detail crashes including a fixed-object collision at 17 mph and a July 2025 report upgraded to `Minor W/ Hospitalization`.
- Analysis shows the fleet averages a crash every 57,000 miles over roughly 800,000 miles, while Tesla cites an average American driver minor crash every 229,000 miles; availability in Austin is below 20% with roughly 42 active cars.
- Transparency differs across ADS operators, as Waymo has logged over 127 million fully driverless miles with 80% fewer injury crashes, while Tesla redacts narratives and China sales are down more than 45%.
16 Articles
16 Articles
Tesla Robotaxis Crashing Vastly More Often Than Human Drivers
The ostensible point of robotaxis is that they’re supposed to be safer drivers than humans. Tesla, apparently, didn’t get that memo. According to updated filings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration examined by Electrek, the Elon Musk-owned automaker has reported another five crashes involving its capital-R “Robotaxis,” for a total of 14 documented collisions since the service began operating in Austin, Texas last June. The ne…
Although Tesla promised that its robotaxi would drive better than us, statistics from early 2026 show something completely different. These cars crash several times more often than the average American behind the wheel. What's striking, however, is how effectively the giant "evades" American officials. Technology was supposed to eliminate human error, not make it happen. At least that was the prevailing narrative when Tesla launched its Model Y …
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