A driverless ride may appeal to anyone who’s had a frightening or uncomfortable experience with a taxi driver. That's why Google's Waymo is considered a leader in this space; it's evolved enough to have a pretty strong safety record. The race for market share heated up with Tesla’s launch of its Robotaxis this week. But are Tesla's Robotaxis safe?
Creator Zack Feldstein (@zackfeldstein) posted a video from the backseat of a Tesla Robotaxi in Austin, amid the service's launch in that city. His TikTok video prompted a flood of comments from people who aren’t ready to trust the Robotaxi with their lives. The post has more than 2.4 million views as of this writing.
Tesla Robotaxi Safety In The Wild
In his post, Feldstein sits in the back of a Robotaxi Model Y as it navigates the streets smoothly and with apparent ease on a recent sunny day. It’s as if an invisible person is driving the car. Some even joke that the driving is done remotely, although that only seems to be the case for operators who need to intervene in an emergency.
But the enthusiasm and Tesla's stock price slowed down after some unsettling videos of Robotaxis went viral.
One video shows a Robotaxi hesitating to make a left turn and the steering wheel glitching. The vehicle then goes straight through a left-turn-only lane and briefly drives on the wrong side of the road. The road is clear, well-marked, and the weather is sunny and dry.
Another video surfaced of a Robotaxi unexpectedly braking twice in the middle of a public road with no interference ahead. Mobility expert and author Edward Niedermeyer said that it braked because there were parked police vehicles outside its driving path.
“The fact that it came nearly to a stop twice on public roads is downright unsafe,” Niedermeyer writes in the video description.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently conducting an inquiry into the Robotaxi. The agency is concerned about Tesla using FSD in Robotaxis while it's being investigated for several serious crashes.
Tesla has requested to keep the answers confidential.
As InsideEVs reported this week, "According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statement Monday, Tesla claims that all answers it provided to the agency after a round of safety-related questioning last month are 'confidential business information' that could cause material harm to the automaker if made public."
Lidar Sensors Versus Cameras
Unlike various competitors, Tesla relies on cameras and artificial intelligence alone to guide its Robotaxis.
This means Robotaxis don’t have LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors. Lidar systems emit laser pulses in all directions, which is useful for mapping the surroundings of a car and the road. It gives the vehicle a digital three-dimensional view of the driving field.
“A LIDAR instrument principally consists of a laser, a scanner, and a specialized GPS receiver,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.
This technology is heavily utilized by Waymo.
The lack of LIDAR sensors gives some people serious reservations about Robotaxis. “I’ll never trust it without LIDAR. Useless in fog and heavy rain,” one viewer commented.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not a fan of LIDAR sensors. He has personally bashed LIDAR, saying it makes cars “expensive, ugly, and unnecessary.” Instead, his company is betting big on cameras being sufficient for its FSD. Tesla utilizes multiple cameras throughout the car and integrates AI computing in each model.
Tesla claims its FSD can drive itself almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention and will continuously improve.
The company believes cameras and AI computing give its vehicles a type of sight that more closely replicates that of the human eye. The software can process camera images far faster, making other sensors, such as radar and ultrasonic sensors, redundant.
Is A Tesla Robotaxi Safe?
Comments on Feldstein’s TikTok suggest that some people aren’t convinced cameras are up to the task of guiding a vehicle, particularly in inclement weather.
The LIDAR solutions company Hesai Tech explains its approach: “Unlike the point clouds of LIDAR, imaging technology views the world as humans see it; this lends itself to clear object detection and precise image analysis."
But it doesn’t work as well when something obscures its vision, such as fog or rain. A 2024 video shows a Tesla in FSD nearly crash into a moving train in heavy fog.
LIDAR, on the other hand, is better at high speeds and in all lighting conditions. Lidar emits light to a longer range of vision and the lasers aren’t fully obscured by weather conditions. But while Lidar can "see" further and better in fog than cameras or even humans, its performance can still be degraded by heavy fog and rain, per Hesai Tech.
“Unlike ordinary detection, LIDAR continues to work in mild to moderately foggy environments and provides vehicles with reliable sensory data,” it wrote.
Often, many of the best systems use both LIDAR and cameras.
Many of the top comments on Feldstein’s post are from people who don’t trust Robotaxis. “The FSD on my Tesla is questionable at times. I’d be terrified,” wrote one.
“I’ve been using FSD for months,” another shared. “It’s great, but there have been several times when, if I hadn’t taken control, there would have been a major accident.”
InsideEVs contacted Feldstein via TikTok direct message. Tesla does not respond to comments from the media. We’ll update this if he responds.
