Quick Highlights:
- Tesla Robotaxi crash rate is roughly 1 crash every 55,000 miles, compared to 1 crash every 500,000 miles for human drivers.
- All Tesla robotaxis still operate with in-car safety monitors, making the data even more concerning.
- Nine reported crashes in just five months in Austin, Texas.
- Complete redaction of crash details contrasts sharply with Waymo’s public transparency.
Tesla Robotaxi Crash Data Raises Serious Safety Concerns
Tesla’s long-promised robotaxi vision is finally on public roads, but early data suggests the rollout is far from smooth. Newly released crash reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, combined with Tesla’s own mileage disclosures, paint a troubling picture of the company’s autonomous driving performance in Austin, Texas.
After reviewing the numbers, I don’t think this is a minor setback or a case of early growing pains. The gap between Tesla’s robotaxi safety record and that of human drivers is simply too large to ignore.
Crash Data From NHTSA: What Happened
According to NHTSA’s Standing General Order crash database, Tesla reported nine robotaxi crashes between July and November 2025. These incidents occurred while vehicles were operating within a limited geofenced area and under human supervision.
Reported incidents include:
- Right turn collisions in July and November
- Collision with an SUV in a construction zone
- Collision with a cyclist
- Impact with a fixed object causing minor injury
- Rear collision while backing at low speed
- Hit an animal at 27 mph
While not all of these crashes were severe, the frequency alone is alarming.
Crash Rate Comparison: Robotaxi vs Human Drivers
Tesla disclosed in its Q4 2025 earnings report that its robotaxi fleet logged approximately 500,000 cumulative miles by November 2025. That translates to one crash every 55,000 miles.
For context:
Human drivers average one police-reported crash every 500,000 miles, according to NHTSA
Even when accounting for non-police-reported crashes, humans still average one crash roughly every 200,000 miles
This means Tesla’s robotaxi fleet is crashing around 9 times more often than human drivers, even using the most generous assumptions.
Why the Presence of Safety Monitors Makes This Worse
What makes these figures especially damning is that every Tesla robotaxi currently operates with a safety monitor inside the vehicle. These are not fully autonomous cars. A trained human is present, watching the road, ready to intervene.
Crucially, the data does not include how many crashes were prevented by these safety operators. That omission matters. Any future deployment without safety monitors would almost certainly result in significantly worse real-world performance.
Calling this system “3x worse than humans” would already be generous. Sticking to the 9x worse figure is actually the more honest interpretation.
Transparency: Tesla vs Waymo
The contrast with Waymo is impossible to ignore. Waymo operates fully driverless vehicles, without safety monitors, across multiple cities. It has logged over 125 million autonomous miles and reports crash rates below human averages.
Even more important than the numbers is transparency.
Every Tesla robotaxi crash narrative in the NHTSA database is redacted with the same line:
“[REDACTED, MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION]”
We know a Tesla robotaxi hit a cyclist.
We know one caused a minor injury.
We know one struck an animal at speed.
But we have no idea why any of it happened.
By contrast, Waymo publishes detailed incident descriptions. In one example, a Waymo vehicle was rear-ended while stopped for a pedestrian, clearly showing the autonomous system behaved correctly.
Why Transparency Matters More Than Perfection
No autonomous system will ever be perfect, and I don’t expect zero crashes. What I do expect is honesty. Transparency allows regulators, researchers, and the public to understand what went wrong and whether a company is actually learning from mistakes.
A recent Waymo incident in Santa Monica illustrates this perfectly. A child ran into the road from behind a parked SUV. The Waymo vehicle couldn’t fully avoid impact but reduced speed from 17 mph to under 6 mph, significantly lowering injury risk. The company shared the details publicly and even showed evidence suggesting a human driver may have hit the child at a higher speed.
That kind of openness builds trust. Tesla’s approach does the opposite.
Is Tesla Improving? Maybe, But It’s Not Enough
To be fair, the crash frequency appears to be declining slightly, with only one reported incident each in October and November. That suggests some improvement. But even with that progress, a crash every 55,000 miles with a safety monitor onboard is nowhere near robotaxi-ready.
More troubling is that Tesla’s secrecy makes it impossible to evaluate whether improvements are real or just temporary.
Conclusion: Tesla Is Failing the Robotaxi Test
Tesla’s robotaxi program is not just behind competitors like Waymo. It’s failing on the two things that matter most: safety performance and transparency.
If Tesla wants to be taken seriously as a robotaxi operator, it needs to:
- Dramatically reduce its crash rate
- Stop hiding critical safety data from the public
Right now, it’s doing neither. And based on the numbers alone, I don’t see how anyone could argue these vehicles are ready for unsupervised operation.
Frequently Asked Questions — FAQs
Q. How many crashes has Tesla’s robotaxi fleet reported?
- Tesla reported nine crashes involving robotaxi vehicles in Austin between July and November 2025.
Q. How does Tesla’s robotaxi crash rate compare to human drivers?
- Tesla’s robotaxis crash about once every 55,000 miles, while human drivers average one crash every 500,000 miles, making Tesla’s rate roughly 9x worse.
Q. Are Tesla robotaxis fully autonomous?
- No. Tesla robotaxis currently operate with in-car safety monitors who can intervene at any time.
Q. How does Waymo compare to Tesla in robotaxi safety?
- Waymo operates fully driverless vehicles, has logged over 125 million miles, reports better-than-human crash rates, and publishes detailed incident reports.
Q. Why is transparency important in autonomous vehicle safety?
- Transparency allows regulators and the public to understand what went wrong, evaluate accountability, and assess whether safety systems are actually improving over time.
