Tesla Robotaxis: Zero Self-Caused Accidents – Yet the Fleet Barely Drives
Tesla did not report a single self-caused "Robotaxi" accident in the latest NHTSA data on autonomous vehicles. The only recent incident was a Model Y that was rear-ended while stopping – clearly the other driver's fault.
That sounds like good news for Tesla's safety record. However, live fleet data points to the real cause: the vehicles categorized as "Robotaxis" are hardly on the roads.
The Discrepancy Between Statistics and Reality
Analysis platforms like Not a Tesla App show that only a fraction of the Tesla fleet is actually used for Robotaxi services. Most vehicles that Tesla lists as "Robotaxis" in NHTSA reports are likely private Teslas that occasionally participate in the Tesla network – or simply test vehicles that rarely operate in regular traffic.
Comparison: USA vs. Europe
While Waymo and Cruise operate driverless taxis on certain routes in the USA, Tesla still lacks commercial Robotaxi operations. The Cybercab project is still in the prototype phase.
What the NHTSA Numbers Really Mean
The US agency NHTSA requires manufacturers to report accidents when autonomous systems were active – even for Level 2 systems like Tesla's FSD Supervised. That Tesla reports no self-caused accidents could simply be because FSD was rarely or never activated in the reported vehicles.
Conclusion: No Reason for All Clear
As long as Tesla's "Robotaxi" fleet does not actively participate in road traffic, zero-accident reports are worthless. The manufacturer faces the challenge of making its system reliable and safe – but the current data does not serve as evidence.