Transportation

Tesla's Robotaxi service has its first reported 'safety concern'

Tesla has been working on modified Model Ys for its Robotaxi program.
Tesla has been working on modified Model Ys for its Robotaxi program AP Photo/Eric Gay
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Austin reported its first incident with a Tesla Robotaxi service, according to the city's autonomous vehicle incident dashboard.

The safety concern was reported to have occurred on June 22, the same day Tesla launched the service. It took place on East Oltorf Street in downtown Austin, according to the dashboard.

According to the transportation department, the safety concern was reported by Edward Niedermeyer, who has previously been critical of Tesla.

Niedermeyer shared a YouTube video that he said showed a Tesla vehicle braking "hard twice for stationary police vehicles outside its driving path."

Niedermeyer and a spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The dashboard tracks safety concerns and issues, such as collisions or near misses, involving autonomous vehicles in the city. The dashboard also shows incidents with other self-driving companies, including Waymo and Zoox.

It has detailed 120 incidents over the past two years and 45 in 2025.

Austin's dashboard relies on reports from city departments and its 311 service rather than direct monitoring. The city says the data is unvalidated and may miss incidents citywide.

A spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration previously told Business Insider that the agency was in contact with Tesla regarding the company's autonomous vehicles.

Tesla launched its robotaxi service to a select group of users. Elon Musk has said the launch would begin with between 10 to 20 robotaxis.

Currently, robotaxi rides include a safety monitor who sits in the passenger seat and remote operators who can intervene when needed, according to videos of Tesla's robotaxi service posted online.

Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at gkay@jkmperu.com or Signal at 248-894-6012. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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Grace Kay
Grace Kay was a Correspondent on Business Insider’s enterprise desk, where she covered the inner workings of Tesla, Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, and the broader robotics and electric vehicle industries.Her stories have been cited by multiple publications, including Reuters, Bloomberg, and CNBC. Before joining Business Insider, she worked at Bloomberg and Forbes.Tesla: Inside 'Project Rodeo,' the Tesla effort pushing the limits of self-driving technologyInternal Tesla salary database shows Elon Musk's strategy: Lower salaries, bigger stock grantsTesla tells staff it plans to roll out its Robotaxi service in San Francisco this weekendTesla has been working on modified Model Ys for its Robotaxi programTesla prioritizes Musk's and other 'VIP' drivers' data to train self-driving softwareAshok Elluswamy is the most powerful Tesla executive you've never heard ofxAI:Internal documents reveal how Elon Musk's xAI trains Grok to be the anti-woke chatbotXAI's Macrohard project stalls as Tesla ramps up a similar AI agent effortElon Musk's xAI plans to supply computing power to coding startup CursorWar rooms, group chats, and video games: Inside Elon Musk's AI startupBehind Grok's 'sexy' settings, workers review explicit and disturbing contentElon Musk's xAI lays off hundreds of workers tasked with training GrokEVs and robots:Fisker employees are fixing some customers' cars with parts from the company's vehicle 'graveyard,' sources sayFisker Ocean reservation cancellations top 40,000 as the EV company tries to fight off bankruptcy, leaked data showsInside the downfall of Henrik Fisker's second automotive startup, which just filed for bankruptcyInside the glass-walled Tesla lab where workers train the Optimus robot to act like a humanInside OpenAI's renewed push into robotics