The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not yet said whether it will investigate Tesla Robotaxi crashes beyond the existing reporting system. However, the recent consecutive accidents in Austin are putting more pressure on Tesla to promote the transformation from "with manual monitoring" to "fully autonomous driving."
Currently, Tesla's most advanced self-driving vehicles still need to be equipped with human safety personnel - this is a mandatory requirement by law, and it seems that it is still indispensable in practice.
Data shows that Tesla’s new self-driving taxis deployed in Austin, Texas, have been involved in four accidents in four months since the pilot went online at the end of June. The latest accident occurred in a parking lot. A fully autonomous vehicle collided with a fixed object. It is reported that it caused damage to people and property. The specific details have not been further disclosed.
According to federal regulations, if a vehicle equipped with an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) or an Autonomous Driving System (ADS) is involved in an accident, the manufacturer is required to report it to regulatory authorities within five days of learning of the accident. This provision is a long-term safety monitoring requirement implemented by NHTSA and is designed to track potential safety issues with autonomous driving technology.
Previously, Tesla mainly reported accidents related to its Level 2 systems (such as Autopilot and FSD) - such systems still require the driver to be ready to take over at all times. However, Austin’s self-driving taxi service has moved towards a higher level of automation (Level 4), where the vehicles can complete all driving tasks within a specific area. Even so, Texas regulations in the United States still require that there must be a safety officer in the car and a one-button "termination" device to intervene in time when the automatic system fails.
Some analysts pointed out that Tesla submitted far less accident reports than other companies in the industry. The media Electrek pointed out that Tesla has made a large number of redactions in its "Autopilot System"-related incident reports, and almost no details of the nature and severity of the accident have been disclosed. In contrast, competitors such as Waymo have released more detailed operating data.
Tesla revealed in its latest earnings call that the Austin Robotaxi fleet has traveled approximately 250,000 miles since it was put into operation. During this period, a total of 4 collisions were reported, with an average of one accident every 62,500 miles traveled. The specific number of safety officer interventions has not been disclosed. Tesla said that the vehicle was still under "manual active supervision" during the testing phase.
For comparison, NHTSA data shows that Waymo self-driving vehicles have traveled approximately 125 million miles nationwide and reported 1,267 accidents, approximately one every 98,600 miles. It is worth noting that Waymo vehicles can achieve "fully driverless driving" and no manual takeover when the system fails.
The difference in collision frequency highlights the significant differences in the level of autonomy and transparency of autonomous driving systems across companies. Waymo has been conducting driverless operations in multiple U.S. cities for many years, while Tesla's Robotaxi project is still in the early stages of piloting in Austin. Regulators and industry observers believe that this reflects the "unevenness" of the commercialization process of autonomous driving technology, and that industry development is still in the exploratory period.