Tesla Reveals New Information About Robotaxi Crashes—and People Concerned

More than that year, Tesla has shielded information about the robotaxi damage from public view. Now, the company has published new information in the federal database about 17 incidents, which took place between July 2025 and March 2026. At least two of them, Tesla’s human employees seem to have participated in the damage. when driving long distances autonomous vehicles to be things on the road.

In both crashes in Austin, “safety officers” were in the passenger seats of the cars managing self-driving technologyand no one was riding in the cars. All of these crashes occurred at speeds of less than 10 kilometers per hour. Many new things were first report and TechCrunch.

In another incident, which took place in July 2025, a security guard suffered “minor” injuries after a remote worker drove a Tesla over a curb and into a metal fence at 8 mph. The driver, who called for help from Tesla’s remote control unit after the car stalled on the side of the road and was not moving forward, was not hospitalized, Tesla said.

Another incident, in January 2026, occurred after a security analyst requested assistance from a remote team. The remote driver took control and drove the vehicle directly into the temporary construction site at 9 mph. The crash left the robotaxi’s left front fender and tires stuck, but Tesla did not report any injuries.

Tesla, which does not have a public relations team, did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

The innovation highlights an often misunderstood but critical aspect of autonomous vehicle safety: human backstops that remotely monitor robot cars and intervene when they get into trouble. All US auto operators maintain these remote groups, according to letters sent to the US senator earlier this year. But Tesla seems to be unusual in that it often allows these remote workers to drive the cars directly.

Some companies often allow their employees to offer autonomous driving software, which the system can choose to use or reject. (Waymo says that trained operators can drive its vehicles as far as 2 mph, but he said (in February that he did not use the project outside of education.)

Security boosters have raised questions about remote drivingwhich can be difficult in areas without constant cellular connectivity and where remote drivers need to have a good understanding of the vehicle’s situation in order to get out of trouble.

The news about the two Tesla accidents “raises questions about what the teleoperator can see in the lights and the resolution, and what kind of latency they are experiencing while driving,” Noah Goodall, an independent autonomous vehicle researcher, tells WIRED in a message.

Tesla’s new robotaxi service is operating in three Texas cities: Austin, Dallas, and Houston. But the service has fewer than 100 vehicles in full operation, compared to Waymo’s nearly 4,000. Less than half of Tesla’s vehicles appear to operate without a passenger-seat safety light. Reuters reported this week that waiting times for services in Houston and Dallas, where robotaxis were introduced in April, are more than 35 minutes. Even in Austin, where the cars have been transporting people for almost a year, the reporter for the news found that robotaxis are sometimes not available.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk he said that autonomous vehicles and robotics are the focus of automakers rather than electric vehicles. Musk’s salary – $1 trillion by 2035-he is now arrested to the car and delivery of robots, as well as the sale of subscriptions that have not yet been released and the number of robotaxis in the commercial sector.