Tesla's Robotaxis Have Already Gotten Into Numerous Accidents

"As Electrek reports, the Elon Musk-led company reported the three crashes, which occurred in the early days of its pilot robotaxi service in Austin, to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). At the time, the company's robotaxi fleet of modified Model Y vehicles only consisted of " ten to 20" vehicles, according to Musk, which even had safety drivers sitting in the passenger's seat."

"Worse yet, most of the details of the crashes, as they appear in the NHTSA's required reports for any crashes involving advanced driver assistance software, are redacted - indicating Tesla is trying to obscure what exactly happened. All we know is that there was one "minor" injury and that none of the three crashes are being investigated. Which naturally raises the question: what else is Tesla hiding? Could the EV maker be trying to fudge the dangers of its new robotaxi fleet? We've already seen the vehicles acting erratically, running stop signs, and veering into oncoming traffic."

"The company recently expanded its fleet by 50 percent, and opened the service up to the general public in Austin earlier this month - albeit with a safety driver now in the driver's seat, ready to take control and effectively defeating the purpose of a robotaxi. The company's misleadingly-named "Full Self-Driving" and "Autopilot" software has already been linked by regulators to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths. How the former, an expensive, $8,000 add-on, differs from the system its robotaxis use remains unclear."

Tesla reported three robotaxi crashes to the NHTSA that occurred during the pilot service in Austin. The pilot fleet consisted of only ten to twenty modified Model Y vehicles, with safety drivers seated in the passenger seat. Most crash details in the NHTSA reports are redacted, leaving only that one minor injury occurred and that none of the crashes are under investigation. The fleet expanded by 50 percent and the service opened to the general public in Austin with safety drivers in the driver’s seat. Regulators have linked Full Self-Driving and Autopilot to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths, and differences between those systems and the robotaxi software remain unclear. Tesla has not shared data demonstrating robotaxi safety performance.

Read at Futurism