Reuters: Tesla's AI Trainers Don't Trust FSD or Its Safety Statistics

A Reuters investigation published at the end of May 2026 — and expanded by outlets like Electrek and TheStreet in the first week of June — raises serious questions about the credibility of Tesla's Full Self-Driving and the safety statistics the company and Elon Musk cite to investors and regulators.

Trainers Wouldn't Get Behind the Wheel Themselves

Reuters interviewed 25 former Tesla data labelers, the staff who teach the AI to recognize signs, lanes, and obstacles. Several claimed they would not trust FSD to drive them and that they distrust Musk's claims about the system's safety.

One former employee summarized the internal sentiment: "I definitely don't trust Elon on this."

Questioned Safety Statistics

Tesla has claimed FSD is up to 10 times safer than a human driver, or 85% fewer accidents, according to charts shown at the November 2025 shareholder meeting. Reuters analyzed the methodology and found:

• Comparison between FSD's minor collisions (no airbag deployment) and human reference accidents (with airbag deployment), which artificially inflates the safety factor.
• Review of federal accident reports and contrast with Waymo's methodology, which publishes more detailed data.
• Six months after Musk said drivers could text using FSD, Tesla has not enabled it; the official website continues to warn of mandatory active supervision.

Manual Mapping of Austin

Musk has insisted that FSD does not rely on "high-definition maps" of localities. However, according to Reuters, before the Austin Robotaxi launch (June 2025), workers exhaustively labeled signs, traffic lights, and features in the test area by filming the region. The Utah team doubled to about 300 people in the six months prior to the debut.

Former employees estimate that it will take years to scale Robotaxi safely, contradicting Musk's promises to cover a large part of the US in months.

Ongoing Regulatory Scrutiny

The investigation comes as the NHTSA maintains several active investigations into FSD and Autopilot, including:

• Cases where FSD failed to obey red lights or turned into oncoming traffic.
• Whether the 2023 Autopilot recall was sufficient.
• Investigation EA26002 into performance with reduced visibility (fog, sun) in ~3.2 million vehicles.

Tesla also faced a $243 million verdict for a fatal accident involving Autopilot in Florida.

Tesla's Response

According to Electrek, Tesla declined to comment on Reuters' statistical methodology. The company typically relies on FSD's legal disclaimers when sued for serious accidents.

Reference article: Electrek, May 28, 2026 (Reuters investigation). Teslarios is not affiliated with Tesla, Inc. or Reuters.