Lifestyle Trend: How safe are Tesla’s robotaxi’s? Autopilot reports 51 deaths You Should Know

Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker will begin rolling out its self-driving robotaxis in Central Texas this month. But many experts are skeptical about how successful this limited fleet of Teslas will be given the company’s recent history and lack of public trust in autonomous vehicles. 

Tesla reportedly aims to launch the new service in Austin on June 12, but has yet to formally announce when or who will be able to access the robotaxis. Last week, Musk posted on X that his company started testing its driverless Model Y cars on public Austin streets “with no incidents.”

Tesla’s robotaxis direct competition will be Alphabet’s Waymo driverless cars that have been operating in the Capital City since its return last year. Right now it’s unclear what this new service will look like, since Tesla has shared little to no details about its vehicles’ safety beyond boasts from its CEO. Forbes called Tesla’s Austin launch “a disaster waiting to happen” as the company’s sales continue to dip amid backlash against Musk’s right-wing politics and leading role cutting federal jobs under the Trump Administration. 

Here’s what we know so far about Tesla’s robotaxis ahead of the roll-out: 

Tesla is test-launching about 10 to 20 autonomous Model Y vehicles in some parts of Austin, with plans to expand to a thousand within a few months. The June robotaxi debut will be invite-only at launch, so if you’re not in with the richest man in the world you’ll have to wait your turn.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas visited Tesla’s Palo Alto office in California and learned that the robotaxis will be teleoperated with remote operators watching the vehicles through embedded cameras, to control it incase it gets stuck, Business Insider reports. 

There will also be “audio inputs” to pick up siren sounds from emergency vehicles, a Tesla rep said in an April earnings call. 

The robotaxis will rely on Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. Both have been linked to hundreds of nonfatal incidents, while Autopilot has been connected to 51 reported fatalities and FSD has been linked to at least two deaths as of October 2024, The Verge reports. In early May, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration raised questions about Tesla’s (FSD) technology to learn more about its development before its use in robotaxis.  

More specifically, the NHTSA wanted to know how well the vehicles will operate in bad weather or reduced roadway visibility conditions such as sun glare, fog, dust, rain, and snow. NHTSA gave Tesla a June 19 deadline to submit this information.

The agency has been investigating crashes involving Teslas (FSD) feature for years, with two deaths having linked to the technology, according to the Verge. More recently, a Tesla vehicle using its latest FSD reportedly ran over a child-size mannequin crossing in front of a stopped school bus.

Two months after Tesla unveiled its Cybercab prototype last year, the City of Austin confirmed to MySA in December 2024 that Tesla had reached out to the city’s autonomous vehicle task force to establish safety expectations for its robotaxis. 

A spokesperson for Austin’s Transportation and Public Works Department told MySA that the City treats each AV company the same, offering training opportunities and providing information about the city’s right-of-way and driving procedures. The City works with AV companies before and during deployment to obtain training for first responders, establish expectations for ongoing communication and share information about infrastructure and events. 

Some examples of information the city has provided to Tesla and other AV companies include:
•    Maps of schools and school zones
•    Traffic control for special events information
•    Fire and police vehicles and procedures

Austin’s TPWD also has an Autonomous Vehicle Incident Dashboard which tracks reports from the public about AV safety issues like near misses, nuisances, collisions, blocking traffic and more. Other AV companies besides Waymo currently operating in Austin include Volkswagen’s ADMT, AVRide, Motional and Amazon’s Zoox, according to the city’s website. MySA reached out to Tesla for comment.