Tesla robotaxis allegedly crash four times more often than human drivers

Self-driving cars are meant to take human error out of the equation. But fresh federal data suggests Tesla’s robotaxi fleet in Austin may still have some learning to do.

According to filings submitted to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and first reported by Electrek, Tesla disclosed five new crashes involving its autonomous Model Y robotaxis in December 2025 and January 2026 alone. That brings the total number of reported incidents to 14 since the self-driving car service launched in Austin last summer.

Based on Tesla’s own mileage disclosures, the math does not look flattering.

One crash every 57,000 miles

Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings report showed its robotaxi fleet had logged roughly 700,000 cumulative paid miles through November. Electrek estimates the figure likely crossed 800,000 miles by mid-January. Fourteen crashes over that distance works out to roughly one incident every 57,000 miles. That’s one crash every 91,000 kilometres.

For comparison, Tesla’s own Vehicle Safety Report states that the average US driver experiences a minor crash every 229,000 miles and a major crash every 699,000 miles. By that benchmark, the Austin robotaxi fleet appears to be crashing at about four times the rate of a typical human driver.

ALSO READ: Tesla Optimus bot, Cybercab robotaxi, and Robovan announced

The five newly disclosed incidents were not high-speed pile-ups. They included a collision with a fixed object at 17mph, a crash with a bus while the Tesla was stationary, a low-speed impact with a truck at 4mph, and two cases where the vehicle reversed into fixed objects. Even so, frequency matters when the entire premise is improved safety.

Tesla also updated one earlier report from July 2025. An incident originally classified as “property damage only” has now been revised to “Minor w/ Hospitalization”, indicating that someone later required medical treatment.

Autonomous driving is still a live experiment on public roads. The industry insists the long-term trajectory is toward safer streets.

But as more robotaxis clock real-world miles, the safety claims will increasingly be tested not by keynote slides, but by actual databases. What do you think of these crashes? Have you tried riding in an autonomous taxi? Drop a comment to let us know.