ROBOTAXIS
MILESTONE OR RISK? TESLA BEGINS UNSUPERVISED ROBOTAXI TESTING IN AUSTIN, TEXAS
Tesla has escalated its autonom- ous driving programme, officially beginning tests of its Robotaxi fleet on public streets in Austin, with no human occupants or safety monitors inside the vehicles. A modified Tesla Model Y, operating without any passengers, was observed navigating city roads autonomously last month, with videos showing the steering wheel moving on its own. Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed the development on X, simply stating: “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car.” This shift represents a significant milestone in Tesla’s Robotaxi pilot
programme, active in Austin since June 2025. The removal of human monitors from select test vehicles indicates growing confidence in the latest Full Self-Driving (FSD) software specifically tailored for Robotaxi operations. The Robotaxi fleet currently operates within a limited, geo- fenced area of Austin. However, the move
to fully
unsupervised testing is generating renewed safety discussions. Unlike rivals such as Waymo, which share granular disengagement and intervention rates with regulators, “Tesla has not published detailed disengagement or intervention
rates for its system.” Critics warn that removing human oversight without publicly demon- strated improvements could increase risks. Data from NHTSA crash reports, based on reported events up to September 2025 in earlier phases of the Austin pilot, showed incidents occurring roughly “every 62,000 miles” even with human oversight present, though the fleet had accumulated limited overall mileage. Tesla maintains that its data-driven approach, which leverages billions of real-world miles gathered across its wider customer fleet, validates the transition.
BAIDU ROBOTAXI SERVICE HALTED AFTER COLLISION TRAPS PEDESTRIAN IN CHINA
A Baidu-supplied robotaxi operating in the city of Zhuzhou, China, struck and injured two pedestrians on December 6, leaving one person “trapped beneath” the autonomous vehicle. The incident has led the operator, Hello, to
immediately halt its
robotaxi service in the city as authorities investigate. Witness videos shared on social media showed a “chaotic scene” where one injured person, who appeared to be wearing a helmet, was trapped beneath the vehicle - marked with the slogan “Hello Autonomous Driving” - while bystanders rushed to “lift the car in an attempt to help.” Local authorities confirmed the vehicle, identified as an Apollo RT6 model, was travelling southbound
24
and had just crossed a pedestrian crosswalk at the time of the crash. Emergency services transported both injured pedestrians, a man and a woman, to hospital. A Hello customer service representative confirmed the Alibaba-affiliated company was informed of the crash and is “actively cooperating with relevant departments” in the investigation. The vehicle involved is part of
Hello’s autonomous fleet in Zhuzhou, which had been scaling up operations since August after receiving regulatory approval for public road testing. Following the crash, the company has paused its AV trials in Zhuzhou. Hello co-founder Yu
Qiankun
recently outlined ambitious plans to put more than 50,000 robotaxis on the road by 2027, with the first L4 AV slated for mass production by June 2026. By contrast, Baidu’s Apollo Go stands as one of the world’s leading robotaxi providers, with operations now spanning 22 cities. Its network includes major Chinese hubs such as Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, as well as international markets like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
JANUARY 2026 PHTM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70
