The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has initiated an investigation into Avride, a robotaxi company partnered with Uber, after identifying over a dozen crashes and one minor injury.
The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) stated that all 16 crashes are related to “the competence of” Avride’s self-driving system, which has struggled with lane changes, responding to vehicles in the same lane, and reacting to stationary objects.
All incidents occurred while a safety monitor oversaw Avride vehicles from the driver’s seat. Avride declined to explain why safety monitors did not intervene but mentioned these crashes were reported to the NHTSA as per the 2021 Standing General Order on automated driving.
“We have implemented targeted technical and operational mitigations to address our findings from each reported incident between December 2025 and March 2026, and have further enhanced overall system capabilities,” said the company. “Our total operations have continued to grow, while the frequency of incidents relative to our mileage has steadily declined.”
Uber has not responded to a request for comment.
Avride, a subsidiary of Nebius (formerly Yandex NV), is renowned for its sidewalk delivery robots. In 2024, the Netherlands-based company sold its Russian businesses. Avride has been developing and testing self-driving cars for years and partnered with Uber in 2024. By the next year, Uber and Nebius committed up to $375 million in strategic investments to Avride.
The investigation follows Uber’s launch of Avride robotaxi services in Dallas, Texas, where many reported crashes occurred, according to the ODI. Some incidents also happened in Austin, Texas, with at least one crash involving a passenger-carrying robotaxi.
The probe occurs amid expanded testing and scaling of autonomous vehicle technologies in the U.S., drawing increased scrutiny.
Waymo is also under investigation by NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board for illegal behavior around school buses, following a January incident where one of its robotaxis hit a child.
ODI completed a preliminary review of videos from each Avride crash. The clips reportedly depict instances of AVs changing lanes into other vehicles, failing to react to slow or stopped vehicles, and hitting stationary objects.
The crash causing minor injury happened in December 2025 in Dallas, where an Avride-equipped Hyundai Ioniq 5 clipped the open door of a parked pickup truck, injuring a truck occupant slightly.
Another December Dallas crash involved an Avride robotaxi trying to change lanes away from a parked truck, leading to a collision with a nearby van, damaging both.
Several crashes involved other vehicles turning into Avride robotaxis, with ambiguity remaining about the opportunity for collision avoidance. At least one crash involved an Avride vehicle hitting a dumpster. Only one report describes the safety monitor attempting to intervene.