Robotaxis crashing, forced to rename one of its main features, and yet another lawsuit — it’s been a tough week for Elon Musk’s Tesla. The Texas-based EV (and soon to be robot) manufacturer has a history of brushing controversy and legal issues off, but it’s not often that three major problems land at the same time like this.
Arguably the most embarrassing problem is the forced renaming of “Autopilot” in California. The decision to drop the well-known name comes after a judge ruled that its terminology, along with the term “Full Self Driving,” was misleading to customers.
Tesla operates a “Level 2 Self Driving” system, which requires a licensed human driver sitting behind the wheel and paying attention. The said human has to be prepared to jump in at any moment, either because the system tells them to or in case the system gets something wrong. And if one notorious Super Bowl ad is to be believed, the Tesla will get things wrong.
Other manufacturers with hands-free Level 2 self driving, like BMW, Ford, and GM,l have not had this problem. But neither have those companies called their systems something that suggests the driver does not need to be involved. They instead opt for catchy names like “BlueCruise” or “SuperCruise.”
As a result, Tesla was about to face a 30-day suspension of its manufacturer and dealer licenses in California, one of its main markets. The California DMV was more sympathetic, giving Tesla a 60-day period to adjust its marketing and comply with the court’s ruling. Tesla caved, and Autopilot is no longer Autopilot. It’s now the far less catchy “Traffic Aware Cruise Control.” Which is far less catchy than “SuperCruise,” suggesting the new naming was all a bit last-minute. As are many of Tesla’s decisions.
Tesla Robotaxis are crashing at an alarming rate
Tesla’s bad week did not stop with the loss of Autopilot. According to data first reported on by Electrek, Tesla’s Robotaxis have been involved in five additional crashes between December 2025 and January 2026. In total, Tesla’s self-driving cabs have been involved in 14 notable incidents since the pilot program launched in June 2025.
Now this is the point where you may expect some data that suggests that yes, Tesla’s self-driving cars have been involved in some incidents, but humans crash all the time. The bots must be safer, right? Wrong, they’re apparently a lot worse.
The data suggests that the “Cybercab” fleet has clocked up 800,000 miles across its vehicles. Which means one of the Robotaxis is crashing every 57,000 miles. Data Tesla itself provided suggests the average American driver is involved in a minor collision once every 222,000 miles. So the Robotaxi is somehow four times more dangerous than that.
Think about that. Picture how bad the average American driver is. Think about the last time you saw a rusted-out F-150 weaving between lanes while its driver was happily chatting on the phone he had jammed between his chin and his shoulder while double-fisting choco tacos. Tesla’s self-driving taxis are worse than that. Even your average driver from Miami is safe by comparison.
And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, Tesla is getting sued again. This time, due to the dangers posed by its vehicles’ electronic door handles. To be fair, though, Tesla seems to land itself in court every other week due to one issue or another. And Elon Musk is no stranger to the inside of a courtroom himself, having been sued for everything from calling a man attempting to rescue some trapped children a “pedo guy” to toing and froing on his purchase of Twitter (now known as X, because that purchase eventually went through). Still, at least the Cybertruck is affordable now.
