Watch Tesla Robotaxi’s Human Babysitter Fall Asleep Behind the Wheel
In 1711, poet Alexander Pope coined the often-quoted phrase, “To err is human.” Tesla’s seven reported robotaxi crashes in a few months prove Homo sapiens don’t have a monopoly on errors. But we may have a monopoly on cat naps.
Tesla first rolled out its fleet of self-driving Model Y “Robotaxis” as a Beta program. Each car had a human babysitter in the front passenger seat to ensure the machines behaved. How’s it going? Not great. Tesla has since moved all babysitters into the driver’s seat so they can intervene before the car crashes itself.
Redditor OhMichael posted a video to the San Francisco subreddit with the caption, “My Tesla Robotaxi ‘safety’ driver fell asleep.” His caption continued, “The safety driver literally fell asleep at least three times during the ride. Each time the car’s pay attention safety alert went off and the beeping is what woke him back up.”
The passenger followed up: “I reported it through the app to the Robotaxi support team and told them I had videos, but I never got a response.” You can see the video below or keep reading to see how this ties into the recent crashes.
My Tesla Robotaxi “safety” driver fell asleep
byu/ohmichael insanfrancisco
Supervisors aren’t supervising
Remember those seven robotaxi crashes? They all occurred after Tesla moved the vehicle’s human supervisor into the driver’s seat. The vehicles hit cyclists, struck animals, and backed into other cars. Electrek reports the Robotaxi crash rate is twice that of Waymo.
The software isn’t working well enough to keep passengers safe. And the human supervisors aren’t doing their jobs consistently. This video may highlight the issue. The self-driving software can make supervisors feel safe. It can even lull them to sleep. The statistics show they aren’t alert enough to prevent an accident.
The problem extends beyond taxis. After a string of crashes in regular Teslas, the NHTSA launched another investigation into FSD software. Immature self-driving software may be more dangerous than no driver aids at all. I’m all for progress. But Tesla shouldn’t put everyone else on the road at risk just to collect data before the software is safe.
