For reasons that never quite made sense to me, people get all jiggly when the conversation turns to Tesla and its so-called “robotaxis.” Some act as if the thought of a car that picks you up and drives you to your chosen destination without a human driver — nothing less than a horizontal elevator — is akin to the Second Coming.
CleanTechnica and every other online or print publication has been obsessing for years over every scrap of news about Tesla’s robotaxi intentions, but no one seems to have had much of an idea about what was going on behind the scenes. We knew in a general sort of way there were people who had supervisory control over the cars as they zipped around various cities, but never knew much about what life was like for those people.
A Complaint From A Robotaxi Supervisor
One of them is Javier Medrano, who was the supervisor of the safety operators in the Houston area. When he complained about having to supervise 38 people instead of the 15 person maximum specified by company policy, he was fired. He filed suit in federal court in Houston this week, seeking to get his job back along with monetary compensation.
In his complaint, Medrano says he was fired after raising alarms about “systemic safety oversight defects,” and claims that a refusal to add more staff turned the Tesla robotaxis into “rolling hazards on public streets.” He claims originally he was supposed to supervise 15 people but ultimately he was responsible for 38 safety operators. His assigned duties included auditing driving videos, doing weekly ride-alongs, handling safety incidents, and being on call throughout the week.
