Every remote-operator takeover that appears in Tesla's federal crash filings has resulted in a collision, with two newly surfaced incidents bringing the total to five1,2.
Both crashes occurred in August and were included in NHTSA's September release of Standing General Order data. Tesla now has 36 unique Robotaxi incident reports on file, up from 22 when Electrek last examined the data in July.
Dallas and Austin filings
In Dallas (report 13781-16678), a Model Y had stopped on a residential street between a concrete mixer truck and a parked SUV. A remote support operator took control and, while moving forward, the vehicle made contact with the SUV at approximately 0.40 mph. No passengers were aboard.
In Austin (report 13781-16679), a remote operator was controlling a Model Y traveling through an alley flanked by a utility pole and a dumpster. The vehicle struck the dumpster at about 1 mph. Again, no passengers were present. Both incidents are classified as property-damage-only and both carry Tesla's structured code for Driver/Operator Type: "Remote (Commercial / Test)". Tesla first used that code on a Houston tree-stump crash in May.
Earlier remote-operator collisions
The three prior remote-operator crashes were more forceful. In January 2026 in Austin, a teleoperator took over for navigation assistance and drove into a construction barricade at 9 mph. In July 2025 in Austin, a safety monitor could not get the car to proceed; a teleoperator took over, accelerated, turned left, and drove the vehicle up a curb into a metal fence at 8 mph. The fifth was the May collision with a tree stump in Houston.
Tesla does not disclose how often remote operators intervene in Robotaxi operations, making it impossible to calculate a crash rate per intervention.
Waymo's contrasting approach
Waymo draws a structural distinction from Tesla's model. Waymo said its remote staff provide guidance that the Waymo Driver can accept or reject, rather than steering the vehicle directly. In a February 2026 letter to Senator Ed Markey, Waymo wrote that it had not used remote driving or tele-operations in which a human performs the dynamic driving task. Waymo described a narrow exception: a trained employee may nudge a blocked vehicle forward at up to 2 mph with fixed steering angles to clear a traffic lane, but said that tool has not been used outside of training.
ANALYSIS The five-for-five collision record on remote takeovers stands out against the broader 36-report Robotaxi incident file, though the absence of intervention-frequency data from Tesla prevents any statistical conclusion about remote-operator reliability.