A former Tesla manager has filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit alleging he was fired after repeatedly raising concerns about safety oversight during the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) testing operations in Houston.
Filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the lawsuit was brought by Javier Medrano, who says he served as the sole operational manager for Tesla’s Houston FSD testing program. He claims the company dramatically expanded its public-road testing operations while failing to provide enough local management to safely oversee the program.
According to the complaint, first reported by The Independent, Tesla’s internal guidance called for approximately one lead manager for every 15 vehicle operators. Medrano alleges that despite those expectations, he was left managing a team of 38 operators working around the clock across three shifts, making it impossible to complete required safety audits, ride-alongs, incident investigations and emergency response duties.
The lawsuit details several months of alleged complaints to management and Human Resources, including emails and recorded phone calls in which Medrano says he warned that the workload had become unsustainable and posed a risk to public safety.
One of the main incidents in the lawsuit involves a March 2025 crash involving a Tesla FSD test vehicle. Medrano alleges he mishandled the overnight emergency response because he was suffering from severe exhaustion after months of excessive workload, arguing the incident was the predictable result of chronic understaffing rather than individual negligence.
Medrano claims he was fired from the job on May 1, 2025, while HR was still investigating his safety complaints. He alleges his dismissal violated the federal Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act because it was retaliation for reporting what he believed were safety defects in Tesla’s testing operations.
Tesla has not yet filed a response to the complaint, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
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