Dan O’Dowd, CEO of Green Hills Software, has raised concerns about the safety of Tesla’s robotaxis, stating that they crash frequently even with a human supervisor. This comes as Waymo prepares to launch unsupervised autonomous operations in Florida cities such as Miami and Orlando.
“Tesla’s supervised robotaxis in Austin have now reported 7 crashes to NHTSA in just 300,000 miles,” said O’Dowd. “That’s a crash every 43k miles, despite tesla’s “robotaxis” having a supervisor who has their finger on a kill switch. 300k miles is what the Waymo fleet does every single day (without a supervisor) if Waymo’s software was as bad as Tesla’s they would be having 7 crashes every single day.”
According to O’Dowd, Tesla’s supervised robotaxis in Austin reported seven crashes to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over 300,000 miles. He calculated this as a crash every 43,000 miles despite having a supervisor with a kill switch. O’Dowd compared this to Waymo’s daily mileage of 300,000 miles without supervisors, suggesting that Waymo would face daily crashes if its software quality matched Tesla’s.
Waymo’s planned expansion into Florida in 2026 has sparked safety concerns. The company reported 398 collisions nationwide through June 2025, many involving software errors that could endanger drivers on Florida’s crowded roads. Local groups in Miami and Orlando are worried about autonomous vehicles handling the state’s heavy rain and pedestrian volumes, potentially leading to higher accident rates and straining emergency services. NHTSA investigations into Waymo’s 19 school bus violations in Texas highlight similar risks that could affect Florida taxpayers through increased infrastructure demands.
Nationwide data shows autonomous vehicles have been involved in over 1,400 Waymo-related incidents reported to NHTSA from 2021 to November 2025. These incidents reveal ongoing safety challenges such as software malfunctions and failure to detect obstacles. The crashes have resulted in property damage and injuries, prompting federal probes and calls for tighter regulations to protect the public. Broader data indicates that self-driving systems like those used by Tesla and Waymo often underperform in real-world conditions compared to human drivers, contributing to higher error rates and raising costs for insurance and repairs.
O’Dowd graduated from the California Institute of Technology and founded Green Hills Software in 1982. He has served as president and CEO since then, developing embedded systems for safety-critical applications in military aircraft. He began his career focusing on verifiable software methodologies in 1975. Additionally, O’Dowd established The Dawn Project to promote safer computer systems and has led efforts to address vulnerabilities in autonomous vehicle software.
