Tesla robotaxi mileage claims face scrutiny after earnings call
Tesla executives said robotaxis have driven 380,000 miles, while reports point to flat mileage, fewer vehicles and safety questions.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
3 min read
Tesla robotaxi mileage came under renewed scrutiny after executives used an earnings call to describe growth in the company’s unsupervised ride service, even as outside reporting pointed to slower progress. The issue matters because Tesla is presenting robotaxis as an expanding business while questions remain about the scale and safety of the program, according to The Verge.
On the call, CEO Elon Musk said Tesla was trying to expand the service quickly while avoiding harm. “We’re going as fast as humanly possible in scaling Robotaxi,” Musk said, “while trying to ensure that we do not harm anyone at all and ideally do not even run over a pet.”
The Verge reported that Musk sounded less forceful than usual about Tesla’s timetable and appeared to manage expectations about what comes next. He said the service was adding cities, driving more miles and reaching more riders, according to the report.
How many miles have Tesla robotaxis driven?
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI, said the company’s unsupervised robotaxis have covered 380,000 miles in six cities across two states, The Verge reported. Musk said miles driven were rising by 10 percent a week.
Those figures sit beside a less favorable picture. The Verge, citing Electrek, reported that Tesla’s own chart showed robotaxi mileage was roughly flat. The Verge also reported that the number of vehicles in the program appeared to be falling.
A robotaxi is a vehicle used for ride-hailing service without a human driver controlling it. In Tesla’s case, the service is described as unsupervised, meaning the company is presenting the cars as operating without an onboard safety driver.
What safety questions are being raised?
Tesla executives have claimed there have been “zero notable incidents,” according to The Verge. The same report said the safety of the company’s technology remains an open question, without giving further incident details in the portion available.
The company’s approach also differs from some rivals. The Verge reported that Elluswamy criticized competitors that rely on lidar sensors, while Tesla continues to use a camera-only system for its autonomous-driving work.
Lidar is a sensor technology used by many autonomous-vehicle companies to measure surroundings with laser pulses. Tesla’s camera-only strategy depends on visual data instead of that additional sensing hardware, a distinction the company has often used to separate its system from competitors, according to The Verge.
The earnings call left two versions of Tesla’s robotaxi rollout in view: executives describing expansion by city count and weekly mileage gains, and outside reporting pointing to limited growth signals. For now, the public numbers cited by Tesla show activity across multiple cities, while the broader evidence described by The Verge suggests the rollout remains constrained.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.