--- title: "Tesla Robotaxi With No Driver Spotted Smashing Through Traffic Barriers" description: "A Tesla Robotaxi with no safety driver panicked after taking a wrong turn and plowed through a row of bollards." date: "2026-08-19" modified: "2026-08-19" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/tesla-robotaxi-no-driver-bollards" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Electric Vehicles" - "Self-Driving Vehicles" - "Tesla" --- # Tesla Robotaxi With No Driver Spotted Smashing Through Traffic Barriers ![Screenshots of a video of a self-driving Tesla robotaxi smashing through bollards.]() *bladerskb via Reddit* Like a klutz on an obstacle course, a Tesla Robotaxi with no safety driver seemingly panicked after taking a wrong turn and plowed through a row of bollards, those springy traffic barriers that you are *not* supposed to run down. The incident was captured in a [video]() uploaded Monday to the r/SelfDrivingCars subreddit and first [spotted by *Electrek*](). It was taken by a rider sitting in the front passenger seat, who sounded progressively more concerned as it dawned on him what the Robotaxi was trying to do. "It's going through bollards," the passenger says, as the car inches towards the barriers. In the video, it appears the self-driving Tesla drove into a curb extension delineated by plastic bollards, thinking it was a right turn lane. But once it tried to turn onto the next street, it realized it was hemmed in. "There's bollards right here. You can't go this way," the passenger exhorts the cab. "Don't do that!" https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfDrivingCars/comments/1vqrpwa/tesla_robotaxi_rams_through_several_bollards_and/ The vehicle clearly recognizes the obstacles in the way and freezes in place for around a minute, occasionally fidgeting with the steering wheel and pulsing the brakes. Instead of reversing out, though, it eventually decides on a drastic course of action: driving straight through the bollards. Luckily for everyone involved, the barriers were the flimsy plastic kind; otherwise, this might've ended up being fodder for the [World Bollard Association](). The passenger, in any case, was in disbelief. "It ran through the bollards," he said. "Holy sh\*t." It's a bizarre collision that raises more than a few questions about the Robotaxi software's decision making process. Mistake number one was turning into a lane that was closed off. Then it couldn't figure out that it should've reversed out of the off-limits area. Most baffling of all, it obviously detected the bollards in its way, but nonetheless chose to run them over. Like other robotaxi companies, Tesla has teleoperators that can offer assistance or takeover the vehicles when they get stuck. It's unclear if these remote helpers were involved in this incident. Apropos, this weird collision comes about a month after the official Tesla account on X [bragged]() that the Robotaxis had suffered "0 notable incidents across 380,000 miles traveled." The word "notable" is certainly doing some heavy lifting there, as the vehicles have been spotted [barreling the wrong way down a one-way street]() and [driving erratically](). Tesla CEO Elon Musk has insisted that the company is "paranoid about safety," perhaps only to bely the fact that the robotaxi service [appears to be regressing](), racking up fewer miles from paying customers than it did in the past and operating a fleet with only a dozen or so cars actively giving unsupervised rides. There certainly may be a kernel of truth to Musk's professed safety concerns, but plowing through bollards that are explitly designed to protect pedestrians from rogue drivers isn't helping his case. **More on Tesla:** [*Tesla Whistleblower Describes Wildly Dangerous Safety Lapses While Developing Full Self-Driving*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()