Tesla Robotaxi safety driver caught sleeping during San Francisco ride
A passenger reported that a Tesla Robotaxi safety driver fell asleep multiple times during a ride to a San Francisco hospital more than a week before the report was made public. The passenger said they reported the incident through the Tesla app but received no response from the company.
What happened
An anonymous passenger posted on Reddit on 20 November 2025 that a Tesla Robotaxi safety driver fell asleep at least three times during a ride to UC San Francisco's hospital that occurred more than one week prior.
The passenger said the driver woke up after the vehicle's 'pay attention' safety alert activated and started beeping. The passenger reported the incident through the Tesla Robotaxi app with accompanying videos but received no response from the company after more than a week.
Reported impact
The passenger stated that 'major harm' could have been caused to others on the road during the incident.
Index analysis
The incident highlights a vulnerability in the oversight model where a human safety driver is tasked with supervising autonomous driving but may become inattentive or fall asleep.
Governance controls
Tesla's support team did not respond to the passenger's report submitted through the Robotaxi app despite the passenger providing videos and waiting over a week before making the incident public.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.