Uber partner Avride is under investigation for self-driving crashes

Source: TechCrunch

Investigation overview

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into Avride, a robotaxi company partnered with Uber, after identifying more than a dozen crashes and one minor injury.

The safety regulator’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said all 16 crashes it has identified involve “the competence of” Avride’s self‑driving system, which has struggled with changing lanes, responding to other vehicles in the same lane, and reacting to stationary objects. All crashes occurred while Avride vehicles were under the supervision of a safety monitor in the driver’s seat. Avride declined to comment on why safety monitors did not intervene, noting that it reported the incidents to NHTSA as required by the agency’s 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,” the company said. “Our total operations have continued to grow, while the frequency of incidents relative to our mileage has steadily declined.”

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Company background

• Avride is best known for its sidewalk delivery robots and is a subsidiary of Nebius (formerly Yandex NV), the Netherlands‑based company that sold off its Russian business in 2024.
• Avride has spent years developing and testing self‑driving cars and struck a partnership with Uber in 2024.
• In 2025, Uber and its parent company Nebius agreed to make “strategic investments and other commitments” to Avride worth up to $375 million.

The investigation follows Uber’s launch of rides in Avride robotaxis in Dallas, Texas, in late 2025, where many of the reported crashes have occurred, according to the ODI. Some incidents also took place in Austin, Texas, and at least one crash involved a robotaxi carrying a passenger.

Crash details

• December 2025, Dallas – An Avride‑equipped Hyundai Ioniq 5 clipped the open driver’s side door of a parked pickup truck, causing a minor injury to a truck occupant (no hospitalization required).
• December 2025, Dallas – An Avride robotaxi attempted to change lanes to avoid a parked pickup truck, turned into a neighboring van, and damaged both vehicles.
• Multiple crashes involved other vehicles turning into Avride robotaxis; it is unclear whether avoidance was possible.
• At least one incident involved an Avride vehicle striking a dumpster.
• Only one of the reported crashes notes the safety monitor attempting to intervene.

The ODI completed a preliminary review of videos from each crash, observing:

• Vehicles changing lanes into the path of or directly into other vehicles traveling in an adjacent lane.
• Failure to slow or stop for slow‑moving or stopped vehicles ahead.
• Failure to slow for or avoid vehicles entering the lane ahead.
• Striking stationary objects partially obstructing the lane.

Related investigations

• Waymo is currently under investigation by both NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board for illegal behavior around school buses and for a January crash in which a Waymo robotaxi struck a child. See the reports on the illegal school‑bus behavior and the child‑injury crash.

The Avride probe arrives amid expanded testing, deployment, and scaling of autonomous‑vehicle technologies by numerous companies across the United States, drawing increased regulatory scrutiny.