Tesla Robotaxis have crashed no less than twice since July 2025 whereas a teleoperator was remotely driving the automobiles, in line with newly unredacted info submitted to the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration (NHTSA).
Each crashes occurred in Austin, Texas and occurred at low speeds. In every case, there was a security monitor behind the wheel and no passengers have been onboard.
The brand new info comes just some months after Tesla told lawmakers that it permits distant operators to pilot one of many firm’s automobiles so long as they keep below 10 miles per hour. “This functionality allows Tesla to promptly transfer a automobile that could be in a compromising place, thereby mitigating the necessity to look forward to a primary responder or Tesla discipline consultant to manually get well the automobile,” the corporate stated on the time.
Tesla, like different firms engaged on autonomous automobile know-how, is required to submit detailed details about any crashes to NHTSA. Not like most of these different firms, although, Tesla had at all times redacted the descriptions of its crashes, claiming they have been confidential enterprise info.
It’s not clear why, however Tesla modified course this week, and the newest model of the information launched by NHTSA now offers a story description for all 17 crashes Tesla has recorded since final yr with its nascent Robotaxi community.
In July 2025, shortly after Tesla first began working the community in Austin, the corporate’s automated driving system (ADS) apparently had hassle shifting ahead whereas stopped on a road. The protection monitor requested assist from Tesla’s distant help group, and a teleoperator “took over automobile management and progressively elevated automobile velocity and turned the Tesla ADS left towards the left aspect of the road.”
The teleoperator then drove “up the curb and made contact with a steel fence.”
The same sequence performed out in January 2026. The Tesla ADS was driving the automobile straight on a road, when the security monitor “requested help to help with automobile navigation.”
“The teleoperator took over automobile management when the ADS was stopped and proceeded straight on the road. The Tesla automobile made contact with a brief barricade fora. development website at roughly 9MPH, scraping the front-left fender and tire,” in line with the information submitted to NHTSA.
Much like different autonomous automobile firms like Waymo, many of the different newly unredacted crashes contain Tesla Robotaxi automobiles being crashed into as an alternative of inflicting crashes.
However no less than two of them contain a Tesla Robotaxi clipping its mirrors on different automobiles. In a single crash, from September 2025, the Tesla ADS was unable to keep away from hitting a canine that bumped into the road. (Tesla reported the canine was in a position to run away.)
In one other September 2025 crash, a Tesla Robotaxi made an unprotected left flip right into a car parking zone and ran right into a steel chain. (NHTSA just lately closed an investigation into the occasional tendency of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software program to crash into car parking zone bollards, chains, and gates. Waymo additionally issued a recall final yr associated to a similar problem.)
Whereas different robotaxi firms like Waymo and Zoox have reported extra crashes than Tesla, Elon Musk’s firm is working at a fraction of the size. The main points that have been revealed this week within the newly un-redacted information might assist clarify why Tesla is scaling up its nascent autonomous ride-hailing community so slowly. Musk himself admitted last month that “ensuring issues are fully secure” is the most important limiting issue to Tesla increasing the community, saying the corporate is being “very cautious.”
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