September 5, 2025 – Tesla has recently offered an official explanation regarding the placement of safety supervisors in the driver’s seat of its Robotaxi autonomous ride-hailing service.
At present, Tesla’s Robotaxi service has already commenced operations in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area. It is anticipated that this service will be extended to more cities across the United States later this year.
When Tesla first launched the Robotaxi project in Austin, safety supervisors were stationed in the front passenger seat. These supervisors did not interact with passengers. Their main responsibility was to promptly report any issues or abnormal driving behaviors that occurred in the self-driving vehicles.
However, when the service was rolled out in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tesla positioned safety supervisors in the driver’s seat. This move led many experts in the electric vehicle industry to speculate that it might be in compliance with relevant regulations in California. As the geographical coverage (geofencing) of the Robotaxi service in Austin expanded, passengers noticed that the safety supervisors in local vehicles were also relocated to the driver’s seat.
Whole Mars Catalog, a well-known blogger who has been conducting long-term tests on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, hypothesized that this adjustment could be related to the new regulations for autonomous vehicles that recently came into effect in Texas. In response to the blogger’s speculation, Tesla’s official Robotaxi account on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) provided a detailed explanation for the change in the position of safety supervisors.
The official account stated, “Safety supervisors will only be seated in the driver’s seat during trips that involve highway driving. This is a cautious initial step we have taken as we gradually expand the Robotaxi service to cover highways.”
Tesla’s cautious approach is quite understandable. Any minor accident or operational error involving the Robotaxi could easily be exaggerated, sparking unnecessary controversies.
