NHTSA Investigates Avride After 16 Robotaxi Crashes

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into Avride, a robotaxi company partnering with Uber, following 16 crashes involving its autonomous Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles between December 2025 and March 2026. The incidents, which occurred in Dallas and Austin while safety monitors were present in the driver's seat, included one case resulting in a minor injury that did not require hospitalization.

NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation identified patterns of concern in the autonomous driving system, such as unsafe lane changes into the path of nearby vehicles, failures to slow or stop for stopped traffic or vehicles entering the lane, and collisions with stationary objects like a dumpster. In the injury incident in Dallas last December, an Avride vehicle struck the open driver's side door of a parked pickup truck. Another Dallas crash that month saw a robotaxi collide with a van while attempting a lane change to avoid a parked vehicle. NHTSA records indicate safety monitors intervened in only one of the 16 crashes.

Avride, a subsidiary of Nebius Group formed after the 2024 restructuring of Yandex NV, reported the incidents to NHTSA under the...