Tesla Robotaxis Involved in Two Crashes With Teleoperators

Tesla Robotaxis have crashed at least twice since July 2025 while a teleoperator was remotely driving the vehicles, according to newly unredacted information submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Both crashes happened in Austin, Texas, and occurred at low speeds.

In each case, there was a safety monitor behind the wheel and no passengers were onboard. The reports provide narrative descriptions for all 17 crashes recorded with the Robotaxi network since last year. The new information comes months after the company told lawmakers that it allows remote operators to pilot vehicles as long as they stay under 10 miles per hour.

"This capability enables Tesla to promptly move a vehicle that may be in a compromising position, thereby mitigating the need to wait for a first responder or Tesla field representative to manually recover the vehicle," the company said at the time.

2025, shortly after operations began in Austin, the automated driving system had trouble moving forward while stopped on a street. The safety monitor requested help from the remote assistance team. A teleoperator took over vehicle control, gradually increased speed, turned left toward the left side of the street, drove up the curb and made contact with a metal fence.

A similar sequence occurred in January 2026. The automated driving system was driving straight on a street when the safety monitor requested support. The teleoperator took over when the system was stopped, proceeded straight and made contact with a temporary barricade at a construction site at approximately 9 mph, scraping the front-left fender and tire.