How frequently Tesla Robotaxis and Waymo vehicles crash

Tesla’s Robotaxi service officially went live in late June of this year in Austin, Texas. Since then, Elon Musk’s vaunted autonomous taxi system has already suffered numerous accidents – and that with a human safety monitor on board.

According to a new report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Tesla robotaxis have crashed four times since September. The most recent incident involved a robo-taxi crashing into a “fixed object” while inside a parking lot, according to the Electric vehicle news site Electrek, who noticed the updated crash information.

Recent Texas State Law need companies like Tesla must have a human safety monitor inside their Robotaxis due to its specific level of autonomous driving. These safety monitors have a kill switch to take control of the vehicle in the event of a problem with Tesla’s self-driving system.

NHTSA is a U.S. government agency responsible for enforcing motor vehicle regulations. Autonomous vehicle makers are required to report accidents to the agency within five days of becoming aware of them.

NHTSA requires automakers to share information regarding incidents related to self-driving vehicles (ADS) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The latter is what is generally found in classic Tesla vehicles with its Full Self-Driving system. However, robotaxis like Waymo’s autonomous vehicles or Tesla’s recently launched Robotaxis fall under the ADS category, marking the first time Tesla has filed such reports under this designation.

With both companies now operating ADS vehicles, Electrek compared NHTSA incident reports between Tesla and Waymo. The outlet found that Tesla Robotaxis was involved in significantly more accidents per mile driven, although Waymo vehicles do not require a human safety monitor like Tesla Robotaxis.

According to Tesla, Robotaxis have traveled 250,000 miles since the service launched in Austin in late June. Waymo vehicles have traveled 125 million miles since the company launched its autonomous vehicles.

Analyzing the data, the report reveals that Tesla Robotaxis crashes approximately once every 62,500 miles. Waymo vehicles, which have been involved in 1,267 accidents since the service began operating, crash about every 98,600 miles. And, again, Waymo doesn’t have human safety monitors inside its vehicles, unlike Tesla’s Robotaxis.

As Electrek points out, Tesla removes a lot of information from its NHTSA reports, while Waymo provides more details about accidents its cars are involved in. So, it’s unclear what exactly happened in many cases involving Tesla Robotaxis.

But, with the data we have, it appears that Waymo has so far beaten Musk’s Tesla when it comes to the more precise autonomous vehicle system.