Federal crash data lists five Tesla Robotaxi crashes in which a remote operator, not the car’s own driving system, was in control. Two were added in the latest release, both in August, in Dallas and Austin. No injuries are listed for any of the five. One count of the data puts Tesla’s Robotaxi crash reports at 36, up from 22 in July.
The five crashes
In July 2025 in Austin, a remote operator took over after the car would not move, and it drove up a curb into a metal fence at about 8 mph. In January 2026, also in Austin, an operator helping with navigation hit a construction barricade at about 9 mph. In May, a Robotaxi in Houston hit a tree stump.
The two new cases are from August. In Dallas, a stopped Model Y was wedged between a concrete mixer truck and a parked SUV. An operator moved it forward and it touched the SUV at about 0.4 mph. In Austin, an operator was driving a Model Y through an alley when it hit a dumpster at about 1 mph. No passengers were on board in either case.
What Tesla has said about remote driving
In a March 26 letter to Senator Ed Markey, Tesla said its Robotaxis are not remotely driven under normal conditions. It said operators may “temporarily assume direct vehicle control” as a last resort, at 2 mph or less, or up to 10 mph if the driving system grants access. Tesla said its operators are employees based in Austin and Palo Alto. The speeds we have for four of the five crashes fit under that 10 mph limit.
What the data cannot show
The reports cover crashes only, so five cases do not give a crash rate. Tesla has not said how often operators take control, so we cannot tell whether remote driving is safer or riskier than the car’s own system. Waymo has said that it does not use remote driving in which a human performs the driving task and that its remote staff only give guidance the car can accept or reject. We covered another federal complaint in Tesla Robotaxis Face Federal Petition Over School-Zone Speeds.
Our take: these were slow crashes with no injuries listed, so the issue is not severity. It is the missing number. Crash reports show what went wrong, but not how often a remote operator steps in, and that figure would say how much of the Robotaxi service is still run by people. Tesla reports results on October 21, which we covered in Tesla Sets Its Q3 Earnings Report for Wednesday, October 21.
