Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor

Teslarati ^ | 01/22/2026 | By Joey Klender

[SmokingJoe]

Tesla has officially launched public Robotaxi rides in Austin, Texas, without a Safety Monitor in the vehicle, marking the first time the company has removed anyone from the vehicle other than the rider.

The Safety Monitor has been present in Tesla Robotaxis in Austin since its launch last June, maintaining safety for passengers and other vehicles, and was placed in the passenger’s seat.

Tesla planned to remove the Safety Monitor at the end of 2025, but it was not quite ready to do so. Now, in January, riders are officially reporting that they are able to hail a ride from a Model Y Robotaxi without anyone in the vehicle:

I am in a robotaxi without safety monitor pic.twitter.com/fzHu385oIb

— TSLA99T (@Tsla99T) January 22, 2026

Tesla started testing this internally late last year and had several employees show that they were riding in the vehicle without anyone else there to intervene in case of an emergency.

Tesla has now expanded that program to the public. It is not active in the entire fleet, but there are a “few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors,” Ashok Elluswamy said:

Robotaxi rides without any safety monitors are now publicly available in Austin.

[Blennos]

Non-sequitur

Not to my mind. We were discussing the failure rate of complex systems. I merely pointed out that some were more reliable than others. Sic sequitur.

[Blennos]

The ol’, “Sure, people will die, but, damn!, I am going to make some money here!”

Now that's a rather cynical and, I should say, unfortunate reading of my argument. I think that self driving vehicles will eventually be a net benefit our society. Hardly an outrageous supposition.

[T.B. Yoits]

That's a step in the right direction for Norway, but while percent of GDP sounds great for governments, it's an obfuscation. Let's see their actual money spent per capita exceed what the U.S. spends.

They're not just defending their treasury and economics, they're defending people. Let's see the spending align.

Let's see "NorwayAID" replace USAID. They can sit fat and happy because we're already $138 trillion in the hole and borrowing money to send it to countries like Norway. Let's see them send back money until our debt ratio is close to theirs.

We shouldn't be subsidizing King Harald and his socialist cohorts in the Norwegian government.

[Blennos]

if you think lousy drivers are a hazard now, just wait until these systems fail.” They already have:

This reminds of the early days of manned flight. Many, many failures. Now, not so much. Have a little faith.

[Dr. Sivana]

CyberCab is a two seater only. No steering wheel. So you CAN’T drive it. I wish it well, and I am not against EVs on a level playing field, but it is not for me.

[Drago]

So when Tesla gets approved for “self-driving SAE Level 4 or 5” (”FSD”) then when I own/buy a Tesla I can drop the liability insurance part of my auto policy and after a collision refer the ambulance chasing lawyer to Tesla? Or do we have to go “no-fault insurance” nationwide?

https://www.jalopnik.com/1903079/self-driving-levels-explained/

[Blennos]

That’s a good question. I would think the insurance and legal implications of this new technology will eventually work themselves out, probably to the benefit of the legal and insurance industries.

[markman46]

nice i had a 67 dodge dart slant 6 with 3 on the tree. no bucket seats two bench seats front and back

[Dr. Sivana]

That was an excellnt year for Darts.

[SmokingJoe]

2 seats is fine for a taxi.
Most taxi rides are for one or two people.
And it doesn't need a steering wheel or pedals, since its controlled by FSD AI and computers.
That's why the price will be so low.
Musk is usually ahead of the curve.

[markman46]

yes i got the car in 73 for graduation. learned car maintaince from my dad.

[SmokingJoe]

Less than for human drivers.

[SmokingJoe]

The most commonly cited and reasonable estimate for modern ride-hailing services (which have largely supplanted traditional taxis in many contexts, especially in urban areas like New York City) is that approximately 90% of trips involve 1 or 2 passengers

This comes from driver-reported distributions and analyses for typical Uber trips (a close proxy for taxi/ride-hailing patterns, as both serve similar on-demand, individual or small-group needs):
~65% of rides have 1 passenger (solo).
~25% have 2 passengers (often couples or colleagues).

[antidemoncrat]

Except for incidences when self driving cars didn’t realize they were supposed to stop for school buses picking up or dropping off kiddos and didn’t.