A San Francisco resident says their recent Tesla Robotaxi trip took an unusual turn after the vehicle’s safety driver fell asleep multiple times — and they are not the only passenger claiming to have encountered the same driver.
The rider, who posted their experience to Reddit, says they had used Tesla’s Robotaxi service several times before and always felt secure, even safer than traditional rideshare options. But during a trip just over a week ago, that changed.
They claim the onboard safety operator nodded off at least three times, each episode ending only when the car’s driver-monitoring system triggered a loud “pay attention” alert that jolted the operator awake, even posting a video of one of the times the driver fell asleep.
My Tesla Robotaxi “safety” driver fell asleep
byu/ohmichael insanfrancisco
The user says they immediately filed a report through Tesla’s Robotaxi support system — offering the videos — but received no response after more than a week. After waiting for Tesla to address the concern privately, they chose to go public. They later added that after the trip, they switched to a Waymo vehicle to get home.
The post quickly drew attention, including from another user who claims they experienced the same safety driver under the same conditions.
“Dude! This was my driver too! I already reported him to Tesla. Wtf?? It was 7am driving from Temescal to SF. Took an hour with traffic and it was just this the entire time,” the second rider wrote.
Other community members urged the original poster to report the incident directly to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the agency responsible for regulating passenger carriers in the state. One commenter noted that safety drivers are not symbolic placeholders — they are legally responsible for controlling the vehicle at all times.
“The driver of your vehicle isn’t there for ‘legal reasons’. They are the driver of the vehicle. Having them asleep at the wheel is a life-threatening emergency… you should leave the vehicle as soon as safe to do so and call 911,” the user wrote, also providing CPUC’s complaint hotline and web form.
The timing of the report comes as Tesla is expanding Robotaxi booking access across San Francisco, Austin, and to users throughout the U.S. and Canada. While the company is pushing toward fully driverless operations in Austin, the current phase in California still requires human safety operators behind the wheel to monitor the system and intervene when needed.
Tesla has not commented publicly on the video, nor is it known whether the company is investigating the matter. However, based on the viral post on Reddit, Tesla is likely now aware and the employee is likely no longer with the company.
