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Tesla’s robotaxis are operating in a regulatory vacuum | The federal government has effectively given up on regulating driverless vehicles. That’s good news for Elon Musk.

theverge | 2025-06-24 17:20 | 178 views

Comments (32)
theverge 2025-06-24 17:20

This week, Tesla launched its long-promised robotaxi service in Austin, and almost immediately its vehicles were caught fucking up. [In a YouTube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s-h0YXtF0c&ab_channel=TeslaDaily), a Tesla robotaxi briefly drives on the wrong side of the road. Another video shared by Ed Niedermeyer, the author of a book about Tesla’s origins, shows a robotaxi [braking hard in the middle of the road](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpARr8DVU2M) in response to stationary police vehicles that were not in its immediate driving path. And a third captures a robotaxi dropping off its passengers in [the middle of a busy intersection](https://www.reddit.com/r/RealTesla/comments/1lihl6z/robotaxi_pulls_into_the_middle_of_the/). Typically, when a driverless vehicle makes a mistake or is involved in a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launches an investigation. And that’s just what happened yesterday, when the agency released a statement to Bloomberg that said it was reviewing the incident and would “take any necessary actions to protect road safety.” That may leave you with the impression that Tesla has been put on notice. One more mistake, one more close call, and NHTSA will bring the smackdown. Except that’s not really what will happen. Read more from Andrew Hawkins: [https://www.theverge.com/tesla/691975/tesla-robotaxi-mistake-nhtsa-regulatory-weak](https://www.theverge.com/tesla/691975/tesla-robotaxi-mistake-nhtsa-regulatory-weak)

[deleted] 2025-06-24 17:26

[deleted]

Lando_Sage 2025-06-24 17:32

Not the official Verge account saying dropping an F bomb 🤣

manitou202 2025-06-24 17:36

Exactly. When regulators won't step in, consumers eventually will. Robotaxis start running over people or getting into accidents frequently, consumers will avoid them like the plague. Tesla would honestly be better off with good regulations, because Elon doesn't know how to regulate himself, and could end up hurting Tesla's image even more.

Greddituser 2025-06-24 17:39

The Feds didn't give up, they were dismantled by DOGE. Conflict of interest?

HarryCareyGhost 2025-06-24 17:41

Why would anyone use one even now? Uber and Lyft until Waymo is available

xMagnis 2025-06-24 17:41

https://archive.ph/PdFG1 Archive version without paywall

BidAccomplished4641 2025-06-24 17:50

Consumers will have to, Trump and Musk gutted the regulators. The problem is that most consumers don’t watch this stuff, and will believe it’s safe and cool, until people start getting hurt. Even then, if it doesn’t show up on their Facebook feed they’ll never know about it.

luv2block 2025-06-24 17:54

22nd was a PR stunt, nothing more. The minute this is released to the general public and people record getting stuck in an intersection... that shit will go viral immediately and be worse for Tesler than any regulation would have been. Reality always wins in the end. You can't run a robotaxi service without functioning robotaxis... hiring a bunch of fanboi influencers to pretend like they work isn't going to save you from reality.

Sockoflegend 2025-06-24 18:03

He is going to ruin public trust in autonomous driving by being irresponsible and screw it up for everyone

zedk47 2025-06-24 18:08

Tesla will find a way to blame it on the victim

Corrie7686 2025-06-24 18:13

Terrifying if you are anywhere near the 'test' area.

[deleted] 2025-06-24 18:17

[deleted]

Big_footed_hobbit 2025-06-24 18:24

That is just collateral damage. Only some poor ppl will be hurt. But those are only members of the lower caste. Important Humans use planes, have chauffeurs and butlers

zippopopamus 2025-06-24 18:30

Once it's in general service each and every robotaxi will be torched as in 🔥 bombed by the mere fact the service is tinged of nazism

redgrandam 2025-06-24 18:30

I heard America is safer now with no regulation. Nice work Trump /S

Diogenes256 2025-06-24 18:53

Without crash statistics that won’t matter.

Solopist112 2025-06-24 19:07

People complain about the prevalence of law suits in the US but it has much to do with the lack of regulations compared to other countries.

BidAccomplished4641 2025-06-24 19:32

The fanboys might not save them in the end, but they’ll help him get through the quarterly call. Why do you think this was done SO close to end of quarter? They can say it’s launched, and less time for failures.

nolongerbanned99 2025-06-24 20:00

And yet NHTSA is in touch or has called tesla about the videos they are seeing. Not enough or fast enough. Need a legal injunction to get these lethal hazards off public roads. Let them buy or rent a real test track as all other automakers do.

appmapper 2025-06-24 20:25

The first accident a Robotaxi gets in will be interesting, from a legal perspective, once insurance gets involved.

calgarywalker 2025-06-24 20:37

Elon killed the regulatory agencies before this launch. I really wonder if it would have been possible to get his robotaxi service on the road if he hadn’t taken out public protection first.

whawkins4 2025-06-24 20:38

Easy to do when you fire all the regulators.

CMDR_Profane_Pagan 2025-06-24 23:19

Consumers will only avoid lethal cars if legitimate investigations and reports get conducted. You assume it remains the case in the upcoming state capitalistic USA. Tesla cars in the same one decade timeframe incenirated more of their drivers and passengers than the Ford Pinto did. Trump gutted regulatory services, so nothing happened.

Belgarablue 2025-06-24 23:33

Eh, it's okay,if only a 'brown person's gets killed. /s

Belgarablue 2025-06-24 23:36

And yet, the insanely overvalued TSLA stock keeps going up. I keep waiting for a crash, even down to reality levels, but the fanbois keep pumping up the shit-stock.

whisperwrongwords 2025-06-24 23:43

>And that's a good thing! 🙄

potatodrinker 2025-06-24 23:51

Can't be any random Tesla fan who rode their last right driverless. Has to be Someone who is the son or daughter of someone influential.

zedk47 2025-06-25 05:03

"A irresponsible dad let his child jump in front of a Robotaxi. The dad got sentenced to 20 years and damages to the car manufacturer"

Withnail2019 2025-06-25 05:30

Elon Musk does not have any driverless vehicles so this news does not affect him

Ok_Addition_356 2025-06-26 18:24

It's Texas.  They'll say a prayer and deport the victims family or something idk

Dommccabe 2025-06-27 13:08

Keep an eye on here; [https://www.tesladeaths.com/](https://www.tesladeaths.com/)

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