New NHTSA data reveals Tesla's Austin robotaxi fleet crashing nine times more frequently than human drivers through November 2025, even with safety monitors. As prior coverage noted skepticism over unfulfilled unsupervised ride promises post-January storm, the company continues supervised operations, underscoring persistent safety hurdles.
Building on recent reporting about Tesla's unfulfilled promises of unsupervised robotaxi rides in Austin—where enthusiast David Moss took 42 supervised trips amid a January 24 ice storm pause—Tesla's program faces deeper safety issues per NHTSA crash reports and operational data.
From July to November 2025, Tesla's robotaxi fleet logged nine crashes over ~500,000 miles, equating to one every 55,000 miles. This dwarfs U.S. human drivers' police-reported rate of one every 500,000 miles (or ~200,000 adjusting for unreported), making Tesla's nine times worse. All incidents involved vehicles with safety monitors present.
Crashes included: November right turn collision; October event at 18 mph; September incidents like hitting an animal at 27 mph, cyclist collision, rear-end while backing at 6 mph, and parking lot fixed object strike; July collisions with an SUV in construction, fixed object (minor injury at 8 mph), and right turn into SUV. Tesla redacts all narratives as confidential, unlike Waymo's detailed reports (e.g., rear-end by following car while yielding to pedestrian). Waymo has >25 million autonomous miles, below-human crash rates, and fully driverless ops.
Post-storm, rides resumed supervised, per Moss's X posts. This follows Q4 2025 earnings (January 28, 2026) showing 61% profit drop year-over-year. Recent months show one crash each in October/November, hinting improvement, but high rates and opacity question unsupervised readiness.
