Home » Why Are Tesla Robotaxi Safety Drivers Sitting In The Wrong Seat?

Why Are Tesla Robotaxi Safety Drivers Sitting In The Wrong Seat?

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Okay, that headline is sort of a trick question. I think I know why exactly why Tesla is sticking its safety drivers in the passenger’s seat, where a driving instructor might sit: Theater. Pure theater — no other reason. Well, I suppose we can say marketing, which is really just a sort of directed theater, but basically the same thing. The overall goal is to give make it appear that Tesla Robotaxis are happily driving themselves, free from the judgy hands of some moist human, but that’s not entirely true.

I’m not the only one noticing this, of course. There’s other articles making note of this as well, and it’s worth pointing out that there’s no shame in having a safety driver in an automated vehicle, especially in an early test period like this; pretty much every major robotaxi company started this way, like Waymo did until October of 2020. In fact, while driving a beat-to-hell taxi across country just the other day, I saw Zoox automated vehicles driving around Las Vegas, with people monitoring and supervising from the driver’s seat.

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When Waymo launches its robotaxi service in New York, which it is currently planning to do, it will launch with safety drivers even though Waymo has demonstrated the ability to go without them – but New York is a new city for Waymo, and it just makes sense to have a human monitoring things for at least the early part of a rollout into a new city, especially one with as unique a traffic situation (pedestrian-focused, dense, complex) as New York. We’ve known Tesla Robotaxis would be supervisors for a while; that’s not been hidden, though the details we now have are interesting.

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For whatever reason, Tesla didn’t want to deal with the optics of a human in that driver’s seat. They’re not the only automated vehicle company to do this – the Russian company Yandex did this (now AVRide) back in 2020, but only after having a period of safety drivers in the driver’s seat.

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There’s no question that a safety driver’s job is harder if they’re in the passenger’s seat. Have you ever tried to drive from the passenger’s seat? It’s not great. I did it once when I was 17 or so, trying to teach a girlfriend how to drive stick on my old Super Beetle, and she just kind of quit, mid-road, so I had to grab the wheel and shift between my legs – honestly, I was pretty proud of myself for getting the car to a safe place to pull over.

But there’s also no question it’s a less safe way to handle a car than actually being in the seat in front of the controls, so why do it that way? Maybe it’s because the hype around Tesla’s Robotaxi service is so absurdly high, the company felt it had no choice but to make it clear that a human is not driving the car.

I mean, look at the kind of stuff they have to deal with from their fans, which tend to be, um, wildly enthusiastic, to levels like what we see in posts like this one:

Jeezis, dude, calm down. Check out this quote:

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“kinda just the beginning of post driving civilization. second only to space because it basically rewrites daily life on earth, commuting, cities, car ownership, jobs, time, autonomy. the ripple effects are fucking civilizational.”

…I’m not sure there’s enough lubricant in the world to make possible all the eye-rolling this kind of delirious hyperbole demands. I can appreciate the enthusiasm, but join a real cult — you’ll be happier!

So, with unhinged hype like this floating around, you can see why Tesla may have felt pressure to make it clear that safety driver is not actually driving the car. And putting them in the passenger seat instead of the driver’s seat absolutely accomplishes this.

I understand why, for marketing reasons, this move made sense for Tesla. But this also means that for all their crowing about safety, this move pretty clearly shows that safety is not their biggest concern.

Here’s some pictures of a Tesla Robotaxi interior with the safety driver, so you can see the actual setup:

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Also, in case you weren’t clear, Fred Lambert there was being sarcastic, and the re-poster doesn’t seem to have gotten the joke. Waymo has been operating without safety drivers for about five years; they’re not “shook” and they’re not considering adding supervisors in the passenger seat.

Those pictures also call out how the safety driver seems to be keeping their hands on the door release, which appears to be acting as an emergency stop control. You can also see from the layout how difficult it would be for the safety driver to get over to the driver’s seat if they really needed to take over. They can likely grab the wheel, but there’s no quick way to get to the pedals, if needed.

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Others have noticed the safety driver’s hand on the door handle, which, again, may be an emergency stop control. Here’s a video of another Robotaxi ride from a very enthusiastic YouTuber who also notes the safety driver’s hand position, among other things, as he shows the whole process in detail:

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That YouTuber, Out Of Spec Reviews, also notes they’re a regular and happy user of FSD itself.

And while Tesla’s FSD (which forms the basis for the software the Robotaxis use) is quite impressive, especially for a camera-only system, it’s hardly flawless, making errors of varying degrees of severity that require human intervention on a pretty regular basis.

In fact, since Tesla launched Robotaxi service in Austin less than a week ago, there have been enough incidents that the National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA) has taken notice and is looking into the issues. People are even recording lists of incidents already, too.

In fact, here’s one incident, captured on video, where the Robotaxi starts to make a turn in an intersection, then changes its silicon mind for some unclear reason, and drives for a bit into oncoming traffic, crossing the double yellow line:

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The safety driver just let the situation play out, perhaps because there was thankfully little traffic on the road, and no immediate and especially dire danger. But this is clearly not safe driving.

There’s another report of an incident where the safety driver had to exit the car and get into the driver’s seat to extract the Robotaxi from the situation – it’s not shown in the video, just noted in this tweet and its responses:

All of this is complicated because the safety drivers are not in a good position to take control of the car when needed, and it’s just for optics. David, my co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Autopian, thinks it makes sense from a marketing perspective, and while he’s not necessarily wrong, that doesn’t mean it’s not a bad idea.

Most people know that the person in the passenger seat is a Tesla employee. They probably even know they’re there to supervise the car’s driving. But by keeping them out of the driver’s seat, the spot where they can most effectively perform their job, Tesla is prioritizing appearances over safety, and deliberately confusing the level of capability their Robotaxis have.

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Now, we make all kinds of sacrifices of safety in cars to get other things we want; off-road cars with high ground clearance handle worse, extremely fast cars can introduce all kinds of safety issues, small cars are more vulnerable in wrecks, and, of course, motorcycles exist. But in each of these cases we understand why we have sacrificed some bit of safety, which is because we want something else: to go rock climbing or drive fast or save on gas or whatever.

But in the case of sticking the safety driver in the passenger seat, all that is gained is that Tesla is making their cars appear more capable than they actually are, at potentially some cost of safety. It feels deceptive and shallow to me, and I sincerely hope both that no one is actually fooled, and that there are never any incidents where a safety driver must really get control of that wheel or pedals quickly, because that’s not happening with this current set up.

This feels silly. I hope they just move the damn safety driver into the correct seat.

 

 

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Weston
Weston
1 day ago

Austin already sucks.
Now it sucks more.

CanyonCarver
CanyonCarver
1 day ago

Maybe Waymo should add some safety supervisors in their cars. Saw a video of one parked up in Atlanta smack dab in the middle of a busy intersection (most are in the ATL). I guess its good that it just stopped when it got confused, but some supervision would have been handy to move it out the way

Hotdoughnutsnow
Hotdoughnutsnow
1 day ago

Shouldn’t it be easy to add brake-by-wire pedals on the passenger side for the safety driver? We had them in our drivers ed cars in the 80s, but it was a clunky mechanical system, this should be way easier.

Gerontius Garland
Gerontius Garland
1 day ago

But why? They could just sit in the driver’s seat.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
1 day ago

The optics will be even worse if there is a bad crash and the impotent safety driver ends up getting hurt.

Do You Have a Moment To Talk About Renaults?
Do You Have a Moment To Talk About Renaults?
18 hours ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

I’m sure internal data will show that the autonomous driving system was not at fault in any bad robotaxi crash that happens. And Elon sycophants will find myriad ways in which a human driver would have actually made de crash worse.

Who Knows
Who Knows
1 day ago

I’m guessing it is easier for the supervisor to bail out of the passenger seat without a steering wheel in the way, in case things go haywire. It would also tend to put them in a safer spot towards the side of the road, instead of the middle of the road when they tuck and roll

That One Guy
That One Guy
1 day ago

I’ve definitely had Uber drivers no better than that video!
I’m not at all surprised either by the performance of the “Auto-Pilot-In-Training” or the decision to use a kill-switch-operator as opposed to a safety driver.

NosrednaNod
NosrednaNod
1 day ago

“Why Are Tesla Robotaxi Safety Drivers Sitting In The Wrong Seat?”

Because that part was designed by the marketing department.

Strangek
Strangek
1 day ago

Why do we want robotaxis again? Humans are pretty good at driving cabs and Ubers, and people need jobs, so…

NosrednaNod
NosrednaNod
1 day ago
Reply to  Strangek

We need robotaxis because Taxi & Rideshare drivers have gamed the system so that their monetary compensation WAY exceeds their actual contribution to the business. Unlike CEOs.

Howie
Howie
1 day ago
Reply to  NosrednaNod

I had a weird response to that and then I actually looked twice at your comment.

3laine
3laine
1 day ago
Reply to  Strangek

Humans are objectively NOT that good at driving. Or, at least there is plenty of room for improvement considering tens of thousands of road deaths per year.

If removing the driver (the primary cost) makes transportation cheaper, that’s a win for almost everyone.

Also, if the cost is so low that normal people can afford it, now you can travel at times when driving is either impossible (while sleeping), or relatively unavailable (rural elderly, for instance).

Doesn’t make sense for everyone, but it’s a clear advantage for a substantial number of use cases.

Strangek
Strangek
1 day ago
Reply to  3laine

I’ve gotta disagree. Driving is a very complicated task done safely and successfully in highly unpredictable, whacky, human environments all day, everyday, around the world. We’re so good at it that it’s basically second nature to most of us. Yes there are thousands of road deaths each year, but if you look at it in relation to miles safely driven, I think it’s pretty remarkable how few deaths there are given the task at hand. Maybe robots can do it better someday, but not yet.

I’m interested in your point about costs, it will be interesting to see if robo rides somehow become cheaper. My guess is probably not, or at least not by much. These companies are out to make money, they’ll charge what the market can bare, and the market can bare the cost of a cab. The cost is already “so low that normal people can afford” an Uber. More broadly speaking, I guess I’m questioning our desire to automate and AI everything. People can’t buy a robotaxi ride if they don’t have a job!

3laine
3laine
1 day ago
Reply to  Strangek

Quite a few people are “good drivers”, but beyond the tens of thousands of deaths, we also pay insurance based on thousands of avoidable accidents every day. At some point, a vehicle that has more sensors and doesn’t get distracted should avoid not only those deaths, but many times more accidents in general. In theory, anyway, insurance costs and transportation costs should come down with autonomous driving, not to mention opening up things like overnight driving and such that would be cost or situation prohibitive.

What *actually* happens with costs and the timeline of affordable autonomous driving is obviously still up for debate, but to your question about why we would want robotaxis, there are a number of reasons why they would be nice (overnight driving, personal vehicles ready for use for disabled/elderly, etc.).

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
1 day ago
Reply to  Strangek

I disagree. Robots are much better at following the rules of the road unlike many humans who feel those rules only apply to others. Speeding, red light/stop sign running, tailgating, illegal passing, road rage, all very human.

Humans are also selfish, some massively so and media tends to demonize the robots while minimizing the bad behaviour of human drivers because that’s not news.

Case in point, remember the public outrage when a robot car in SF dragged a pedestrian who was trapped under the car? What the media glazed over (because it distracted from the story selling outrage) and what so many people ignored was the fact it was a meatbag HUMAN driver who struck that pedestrian first, hard enough to throw her into the adjacent robot car. The human driver then took off and is still at large today. The robot OTOH pulled over as soon as it sensed something was amiss, within two car lengths or so and called for help. No human driver could be expected to do better than that. Yes the company responded poorly, however all that circus distracted the outrage from the real villain of the story, the hit and run human. Had public outrage been focussed on that meatbag and pressured the police to do their damn jobs that person might have been caught and punished. Instead they’re out there, probably still driving on streets near you and yours.

Strangek
Strangek
1 day ago
Reply to  Cheap Bastard

It’s the bad behavior of human drivers that robots have the most trouble with. Humans, on the other hand, understand that behavior and can compensate for it.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
1 day ago
Reply to  Strangek

I suppose that’s why on robot free roadways multi-car collisions are unheard of and why car safety requirements are completely unnecessary.

Howie
Howie
1 day ago
Reply to  3laine

Yo bro. Terrible argument

3laine
3laine
1 day ago
Reply to  Howie

Yo bro, that’s probably why you easily refuted it. Oh wait.

Gerontius Garland
Gerontius Garland
1 day ago
Reply to  3laine

Driving is an immensely complicated task, and the human brain is by far the most complicated computer system in the known universe. But I’m not gonna get into an argument about all that, I’m just gonna say: it’s absolutely adorable that you think autonomous taxis are going to be so magically cheap to operate that they replace regular cars. Even if someday that ends up being true (unlikely), the Ubers and Waymos of the world will never price rides that low. The rates will be just low enough to undercut a human taxi driver, but no more.

NosrednaNod
NosrednaNod
12 hours ago
Reply to  3laine

“ Humans are objectively NOT that good at driving. Or, at least there is plenty of room for improvement considering tens of thousands of road deaths per year.”

… Over millions and millions of miles driven.

The overwhelming majority of drivers make it through the year every year without any accidents.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
1 day ago
Reply to  Strangek

There are much more important jobs for people to do than that.

Gilbert Wham
Gilbert Wham
1 day ago

That something deemed a perfectly cromulent idea from a marketing point of view is likely to be a wildly terrible idea from almost any other perspective seems like quite a useful rubric to me.

Speedway Sammy
Speedway Sammy
1 day ago

GigaTex has plenty of extra bodies due to slow sales of the CyberTruk so the ride along peeps on the taxi program are Musk’s version of the old GM “Jobs Bank”.

4moremazdas
4moremazdas
1 day ago

In high school my friend had a super beetle. I’m tall enough that I could drive it from the passenger seat and kind of turn my torso to look like I was just riding along, and he would climb in the back seat so it looked like we were just riding in a driverless car.

I trust the safety of this system about as much as that, which is to say not at all.

G. R.
G. R.
1 day ago

I just want to take a second to recognize the absolute lameness of “Tesla fans”.
Thank tou. Back to the show…..

DJP
DJP
1 day ago

Tesla really missed a golden opportunity to not have their safety drivers be Trunk Monkey.
In a disaster, Trunk Monkey would come out and whack the passengers with a wrench, leaving no witnesses and keeping the safety record unblemished.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW8iAVwt_Yc

Hotdoughnutsnow
Hotdoughnutsnow
1 day ago
Reply to  DJP

What a ridiculous moment this is. this image might be in textbooks at some point.

“Tesla Launches Frunk Monkey™” doesn’t even begin to do any justice in any meaningful way.

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