A chart Tesla published on Wednesday shows that paid miles driven by its Robotaxi service declined in the second quarter compared with the first quarter. Although the graphic, which covers August 2025 through June 2026, looks like steady growth at first glance, the figures are cumulative. Broken down by quarter, Tesla’s Model Y Robotaxi fleet carried paying passengers for about 1.1 million miles in Q1 and roughly 700,000 miles in Q2 — a drop of approximately 36%.
Expansion and operational details
The decline occurred even as Tesla expanded the early service to six cities across Texas and Florida, operating a mix of supervised and unsupervised vehicles. Tesla likely also includes activity in the San Francisco Bay Area in its coverage figures, although those branded Robotaxis lack state permits to operate autonomously and often have a safety driver at the wheel; Tesla has counted that operation as part of its “Robotaxi coverage.”
Executive explanation: Cybercab data needs and safety
On a conference call about second-quarter results, Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla, said the company must “accumulate driving data that is specific to the Cybercab” — the gold, purpose-built two-seater sedan Tesla plans to use for much of its autonomous fleet — before deploying large numbers of those vehicles. Musk contrasted Cybercab with Model 3 and Model Y, for which Tesla already has millions of vehicles on the road and extensive data, and said Cybercabs retrofitted with steering wheels and pedals need miles to calibrate to the Cybercab chassis.
Tesla executives framed slower scaling partly as a safety decision. Musk said the company wants to avoid causing accidents that could generate global headlines and trigger regulatory crackdowns, noting that while there are an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 automotive deaths per year in the United States, those incidents generally do not attract major media attention — a single Robotaxi incident, he warned, could.
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president of artificial intelligence, said the company’s Robotaxis have had “zero notable incidents” while driving “more than 380,000 miles” without a safety operator onboard. He did not define what Tesla considers a “notable incident,” and claimed that any reports involved other actors impacting Tesla vehicles while they were stationary.
Reported crashes and technical claims
Since the Robotaxi trials began a year ago, Tesla has reported 22 crashes to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Most reported incidents involve other vehicles colliding with Tesla Robotaxis, but Tesla has also disclosed three crashes it attributes to teleoperators remotely moving vehicles, and multiple low-speed impacts with objects such as curbs, utility poles, and the bed of a tow truck.
On the call, Tesla reiterated its position that a camera-only autonomy stack can be safe and affordable, rejecting the industry argument that lidar, radar and HD maps are required. Elluswamy said the company’s experience shows those additional sensors are not necessary for safe, comfortable autonomy.
Market reaction and outlook
After Tesla released its quarterly figures, the company’s shares fell more than 13% in early trading on Thursday. Musk and Elluswamy both promised further growth, noting that unsupervised miles have increased by roughly 10% per week since Tesla began offering them at the end of last year. Musk said Tesla expects to scale “very, very rapidly” once it has sufficient Cybercab-specific driving data.
Overall, Tesla is in a transitional phase for its Robotaxi program: geographic expansion and technical progress continue, but the quarter-to-quarter drop in paid miles, the reported incidents, and executives’ comments indicate that broader deployment still depends on additional data collection and safety validation.
