Elon Musk has been promising a fully autonomous Tesla for the better part of a decade. If you believe him, that future is right around the corner. But a new Reuters investigation suggests the people closest to the technology, the ones actually training it, want nothing to do with it.
Hundreds of Tesla workers spend their days watching footage captured by cars running Full Self-Driving. They watch cats, dogs, and deer getting struck without the car braking, near-misses with children, and Teslas blowing through speed limits by 20 to 30 mph. Things seem dire, and yet Elon Musk keeps telling the world that FSD is ready to take the wheel.
Is FSD actually safer than a human driver?
Tesla has repeatedly claimed that FSD is up to 10 times safer than the average human driver, a claim that has been cited by its CFO, board chair, and Musk himself at shareholder meetings. The problem is that the methodology behind that number is deeply flawed.
Tesla compared its crash rate, counting only incidents where airbags deployed, to federal data that includes far less severe crashes requiring a tow truck. That single comparison error inflated its safety claims by a factor of three.
On top of that, Tesla compares its relatively new fleet, averaging 4.1 years old, against the national average of 12.8 years. Newer cars are just safer, full stop. As Carnegie Mellon professor Phil Koopman put it, “It’s like saying: ‘My jet airplane is faster than your World War II bomber.’Yeah, so, what’s your point?”
Was Tesla’s robotaxi launch all smoke and mirrors?
Before both the 2024 Cybercab unveiling and the Austin robotaxi launch, Tesla staff spent months mapping routes and annotating footage so the cars could handle specific scenarios on specific streets.
The Utah labeling team doubled to around 300 workers in the lead-up. Nearly a year later, Tesla operates only about 50 robotaxis in Austin, operating only within a carefully controlled zone.
Seven of the former labelers told Reuters they would not trust FSD to drive them. One called Tesla’s safety claims “bullshit.” That is a damning verdict from the people who know the technology best.
Should you trust Tesla’s self-driving claims?
Tesla hasn’t responded to Reuters’ findings, and the fine print on its own FSD website still warns that the feature requires active driver supervision. The FTC has received calls from consumer groups and US senators to investigate Tesla’s marketing of FSD, but has taken no action so far.
Musk once told shareholders that FSD would soon make texting while driving essentially safe. Six months later, that hasn’t happened. The technology the world’s richest man has been promising for ten years is still, by Tesla’s own admission, not ready to drive you anywhere alone.