Tesla incidents
The Machine Record lists 15 verified incidents involving Tesla robots and vehicles since 2019: 7 where a person was hurt, 2 that reached a regulator, recall, fine, lawsuit or settlement. Counted on 2026-10-03; every case links to its sources.
- Cases
- 15
- Someone hurt
- 7
- Fatal
- 0
- Escalated
- 2
- Period
- 2019-11 to 2026-06
By year
- 2019██ 1
- 2020 0
- 2021███ 2
- 2022 0
- 2023 0
- 2024 0
- 2025████████████ 8
- 2026██████ 4
By outcome
- no harm6
- serious injury4
- minor injury3
- property damage2
By type of event
- collision7
- malfunction3
- near miss2
- injury2
- lawsuit1
By kind of machine
- Autonomous vehicle10
- Humanoid2
- Robot arm2
- Industrial1
Counts measure what was reported in English and cleared verification, not how many events took place. Fleet sizes are not public, so none of this is a rate. Rules are on the methodology page; the numbers are CC BY 4.0, cite this page. CSV, JSON and an API are on the data page.
Cases
The 15 cases behind the number
Newest first. Each one links to its timeline and to the sources it rests on.
- 2026-06-10Tesla's robotaxi service reported to have long waits and stalled rides during operationReport
- 2026-05-15Tesla unredacted 17 autonomous driving crash reports filed with NHTSA covering incidents from July 2025 through March 2026 in Austin, Texas, revealing that of the crashes involving its Robotaxi fleet, 13 resulted in property damage only, 2 had no injuries, 1 involved a minor injury without hospitalization, and 1 involved a minor injury requiring hospitalization.Report
- 2026-05-01A Tesla remote operator, while attempting to maneuver an autonomous Model Y out of a dead-end residential road in Houston, drove the vehicle into a hidden tree stump at 2 mph, causing minor property damage.Report
- 2026-02-17Tesla's Robotaxi fleet in Austin accumulated 14 crashes since June 2025, including one July 2025 incident later upgraded to require hospitalization, with the fleet crashing at approximately four times the rate of human drivers by Tesla's own benchmark.Follow-up
- 2025-12-06A Tesla Optimus humanoid robot fell backward during a public demonstration at a Tesla store in Miami, dropping water bottles and making hand motions consistent with a teleoperation headset being removed.Follow-up
- 2025-10-01Tesla reported an eighth crash involving its Robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas, occurring in October 2025, with no injuries reported, while the vehicle was proceeding straight and came into contact with an unspecified object or party.Report
- 2025-09-17Tesla reported three accidents involving its Robotaxi service Model Y vehicles in Austin, Texas, in July 2025, including one with a minor injury and two with only property damage, while redacting narrative details from NHTSA filings.Report
- 2025-07-25Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot production is reported to be severely behind schedule due to technical bottlenecks with robot hands, with mostly complete units missing hands piling up at Tesla's facility.Report
- 2025-07-06A Tesla Robotaxi (Model Y) drove into the side of a parked Toyota Camry in the parking lot of Home Slice Pizza in Austin after completing a drop-off, lightly grazing the Camry's right tire.Report
- 2025-07-01A Tesla autonomous vehicle (Tesla Model Y) was involved in a crash with suv in Austin, TX, reported to NHTSA as minor w/ hospitalizationReport
- 2025-06-25A Tesla Robotaxi safety monitor used the In Lane Stop button on the main display to halt the autonomous vehicle and prevent a potential low-speed collision with a reversing UPS truck while the robotaxi was pulling over to a destination in Austin, Texas.Follow-up
- 2025-06-22A Tesla Robotaxi safety monitor pressed a stop button on the center touchscreen to prevent a near-collision with a reversing UPS truck as the autonomous vehicle attempted to pull into a parking spot in Austin, Texas.Report
- 2021-12-31A Tesla software engineer was attacked by a robot at Tesla's Giga Texas factory in Austin when a third robot that had not been disabled pinned him and sank its metal claws into his back and arm, causing lacerations.Lawsuit
- 2021-01-01A Tesla engineer at the Austin Gigafactory was clawed and pinned to a wall by a robot arm that had not fully shut down, suffering lacerations to his back and arms before falling into a chute.Report
- 2019-11-01At Tesla's Fremont, California plant in November 2019, a stack of three steel skids on an automated conveyor system knocked a worker down and dragged him more than 15 feet, seriously injuring both his legs.Lawsuit
Questions
What people ask about these numbers
- How many incidents involving Tesla robots and vehicles are on record?
- The Machine Record lists 15 verified incidents involving Tesla robots and vehicles since 2019: 7 where a person was hurt, 2 that reached a regulator, recall, fine, lawsuit or settlement. Counted on 2026-10-03; every case links to its sources.
- What counts as an incident here?
- A case enters the register only when two independent published sources or one regulator record (NHTSA, CPSC, OSHA, EU Safety Gate) describe the same event with a date and an outcome. Demonstrations that went wrong, recalls, investigations, injuries and deaths all count; marketing and speculation do not.
- Is this every incident that happened?
- No. It is every incident reported in English that cleared verification. Fleet sizes are not public, so none of these numbers is a rate, and a company with more cases is often a company with more vehicles on the road and more press coverage.
- Can I reuse these numbers?
- Yes. Case metadata is CC BY 4.0: cite The Machine Record with a link. CSV and JSON exports and an API are on the data page.
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