Tesla didn’t report a single at-fault “Robotaxi” crash in the latest NHTSA autonomous-vehicle data — its only fresh incident was a Model Y getting rear-ended while stopped, clearly the other driver’s fault.
That sounds like good news for Tesla’s safety record. But live fleet data points to the real reason the crashes have dried up: Tesla’s robotaxis are barely running, and the active fleet is shrinking a year into the program.
A clean crash report — because there’s almost nothing on the road
Under NHTSA’s Standing General Order, every company operating an automated driving system has to report crashes. Tesla’s total now sits at just 18 ADS incidents since its Austin launch, compared to roughly 697 for Waymo.
Tesla supporters frame that gap as a safety win. It isn’t. It’s an exposure gap. Waymo operates approximately 3,000 robotaxis and completes more than 500,000 paid trips per week. A higher raw crash count is what you get when you actually run a fleet at scale.
