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| Tesla Robotaxi ride-share platform logo on a Model Y. |
Tesla Inc.’s ambitious foray into the world of autonomous ride-hailing is facing new scrutiny following the release of crash data for its pilot program in Austin, Texas. According to incident reports the company is required to submit to federal regulators, its fleet of robotaxis has been involved in 14 crashes since the service began last summer, with a notable spike in incidents occurring in recent months.
The data, reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under a standing general order for crashes involving automated driving systems, paints a detailed picture of the program's safety record as Tesla prepares for a major national expansion.
CEO Elon Musk has stated that Tesla currently operates approximately 500 autonomous Model Y vehicles in its ride-share fleet across Austin and San Francisco. This figure includes both the driverless robotaxis in Texas and vehicles used in a more conventional ride-share service in California. The number remains significantly smaller than competitor Waymo's fleet of over 3,000 vehicles operating in six U.S. cities.
A Timeline of Incidents
The first crash involving a Tesla robotaxi occurred in July 2025, shortly after the program's June launch with a small fleet accompanied by human safety monitors. Initially reported as involving only property damage, Tesla later amended that incident report in December, adding that it had, in fact, resulted in minor injuries and required hospitalization. Another incident from July 2025 was also reported to have caused minor injuries.
The most concerning trend, however, comes from the latest reporting period. Tesla's filing for January 2026 lists five new incidents that occurred during that month and in late December. This recent cluster of crashes coincides with a major operational shift: in January, Tesla began offering driverless rides in "a few" of its Austin vehicles without any human safety monitor behind the wheel.
It remains unclear from the heavily redacted reports whether any of the January incidents specifically involved vehicles operating in a fully driverless mode. Tesla, unlike some competitors, routinely redacts narrative descriptions from its public safety reports, citing confidential business information, which obscures the precise circumstances of each crash.
Details from the January reports that are available include:
- A collision between a stationary Tesla robotaxi and an Austin city bus.
- Two separate incidents where a robotaxi backed into objects while in parking lots.
The vast majority of all 14 reported incidents are listed as resulting in "property damage" only.
Safety Metrics Under the Microscope
The reported incidents suggest a rate of about one crash for every 57,000 miles driven by the fleet, based on estimated fleet-wide mileage. This figure stands in stark contrast to Tesla's frequently repeated claim that its vehicles on Autopilot are "6x safer than the average human driver," a metric the company typically calculates against a human baseline of one incident every half a million miles.
The comparison is complicated by several factors. Tesla does not break down its autonomous mileage by specific software versions or operational domains, making direct comparisons difficult. The risk profile of highway cruising on a driver-assist system is vastly different from navigating the complex, dense traffic of downtown Austin during rush hour without a human safety monitor. Furthermore, the fleet size has been growing incrementally, which could naturally lead to a higher absolute number of incidents.
Tesla's operations lag behind Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo, which operates around 200 vehicles in Austin alone as part of its partnership with Uber. Waymo, which began offering public driverless rides in Phoenix back in 2020, has reported hundreds of incidents nationally since June, including about 50 in Austin. Unlike Tesla's heavily redacted filings, Waymo's reports often include more detailed narratives about the events.
The Road Ahead
Despite the recent incidents, Tesla is pushing forward aggressively with its autonomy plans. CEO Elon Musk has increasingly staked the company's future on robotics and self-driving technology, particularly as its core electric vehicle business faces market challenges.
Tesla aims to expand its robotaxi service to approximately seven more U.S. cities by the middle of 2026, a goal it has previously failed to meet. Later this year, the company also plans to introduce its purpose-built "Cybercab"—a two-seater vehicle with no pedals or steering wheel—into the fleet. Whether the introduction of this new vehicle and expansion into new markets will lead to a corresponding increase in reported incidents remains a critical question for regulators and the public.
As the data from Austin accumulates, the real-world performance of Tesla's unsupervised Full Self-Driving system is coming into sharper focus, providing an early, albeit limited, glimpse into the safety of a future the company is betting its existence on.
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