If you wanted to make a car drive itself, the one thing you wouldn’t do is start with the car that crashes the most. And yet, that’s exactly what Tesla just did.
Tesla has the highest accident rate of any major automaker, and more fatal crashes involving driver-assistance systems than any other brand. That’s not speculation—it’s NHTSA data.
So the idea that this is the car we’re handing the keys to—removing the driver entirely and letting it roam around cities—isn’t just bad judgment. It’s like saying you want to get healthier and then licking the floor of a dive bar bathroom.
There’s no logic to it. Just delusion, hype, and the hope that the stock price goes up before anyone dies too visibly.
Earlier this week, Tesla began testing its so-called RoboTaxi service in Austin, Texas—by which we mean: it summoned influencers to sit in a car that stops randomly in traffic and occasionally lets people out into the middle of the road.
The stock shot up. Because of course it did.
But under the hood, there’s no breakthrough here—no magic AI, no autonomy leap, no public benefit. Just a camera-based system with a long history of phantom braking, fatal crashes, and false marketing, now being rolled out without a driver… in downtown traffic.
A Real-Time Experiment With Human Lives
Tesla’s RoboTaxis are already being caught on video doing exactly what critics predicted: braking erratically, stopping in intersections, and dumping passengers in the middle of the road when they try to exit early.
One feature reportedly lets you tap a button to end your ride and get out. But there’s a problem: is the car sure you’re out? Is it watching for traffic? Did you make it clear? Is anyone else still in the car?
Now multiply that uncertainty across different riders, seat locations, street types, and lighting conditions—and it becomes obvious: this isn’t even close to being safe. Especially for a company whose cars already top the charts in fatal accident rates.
It’s Not Self-Driving—It’s Just Driverless
There’s a big difference between a vehicle that drives itself safely and one that just has no one in the front seat.
Tesla hasn’t cracked autonomy. It hasn’t reached Level 4 or 5. It hasn’t even shown consistent performance at Level 3. But what it has done is remove the one person who could take control when things go wrong—and call it progress.
This isn’t an innovation. It’s a liability shell game.
If a human driver makes a mistake, they’re legally accountable. But what happens when a car without a driver brakes suddenly, strands a passenger, or hits a cyclist? Who’s responsible? Elon? The teleoperator? The software team?
No one. That’s the point.
Safety Was Never the Goal—Profit Is
Let’s not pretend this is about consumer value. No one asked for RoboTaxis. No regular person said, “You know what would make my day better? Getting into a glitchy, sensor-confused, fire-prone electric car without a driver in it.”
The only entity that benefits from this is the company trying to eliminate labor costs. That’s it.
Uber barely turns a profit. Waymo at least works. But Tesla? It’s field-testing an unfinished product on public roads, hoping no one dies before the next earnings call.
The dream isn’t transportation. It’s valuation.
Why Is This Even Allowed?
You can’t fly a toy drone outside of your line of sight in the U.S. without special certification.
But Tesla’s long-term plan appears to include teleoperation of full-sized cars by people in other cities—despite the fact that no U.S. transportation law allows this, and no Tesla currently has the hardware to do it safely.
If you or I tried to remotely operate a 3-ton vehicle without line-of-sight, we’d be arrested.
But Tesla? They call it a feature.
The Final Irony: It Might Be Safer Without You in It
In some sick way, removing the driver might be the only way to reduce deaths in a Tesla.
Because the person least likely to survive a Tesla crash… is the one sitting inside it.
And if that doesn’t say everything about this company and this product, nothing will.
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