Uber partner Avride under investigation over self-driving accident

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into AvRide, a robotaxi company that partnered with Uber, after identifying more than 10 crashes and one minor injury.

Safety regulator Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said the 16 crashes it identified all related to the “ability” of AvRide’s self-driving system, which apparently struggled to change lanes, react to other vehicles in the same lane and react to stationary objects.

All crashes occurred while the Avride vehicle was under the observation of a driver-seat safety monitor. Asked for comment, Mr. Avride declined to explain why safety monitors did not intervene in these crashes. The company noted that it reported these crashes to NHTSA as required by NHTSA’s 2021 Standing General Order on Autonomous Driving.

“We implemented targeted technical and operational mitigation measures to address the findings from each incident reported between December 2025 and March 2026, further strengthening our overall system capabilities,” the company said in a statement. “While our total business volume continues to increase, the frequency of accidents relative to miles traveled has steadily decreased.”

Uber did not respond to a request for comment.

Best known for its sidewalk delivery robots, Avride is a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Nebius (formerly Yandex NV), which sold its Russian operations in 2024. The company also spent years developing and testing self-driving cars, forming a partnership with Uber in 2024. The following year, Uber and its parent company Nebius agreed to make “strategic investments and other commitments” worth up to $375 to Avride. Million.

The study was conducted just months after Uber launched its Avride robotaxi ride service in Dallas, Texas, where “many of the reported crashes have occurred,” ODI said. Some crashes also occurred in Austin, Texas. At least one reported accident involved a robotaxi carrying passengers.

The study arrives amid increased testing, deployment and expansion of self-driving vehicle technology by numerous companies across the United States, leading to increased scrutiny.

Waymo is currently under investigation by both NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board for illegal activities around school buses and a January crash in which an Alphabet-owned robotaxi hit a child.

ODI announced Friday that it had completed a preliminary review of the videos of each of Abride’s crashes. The videos show “an instance in which an AV changes lanes into or directly into the path of another vehicle traveling in an adjacent lane or in close proximity to the AV, fails to slow down or stop for a vehicle that is moving slowly or stopped in the lane or in the path ahead of the AV, fails to slow down or avoid a vehicle that enters the lane or path ahead of the AV, and collides with a stationary object that partially obstructs the lane or path ahead,” the office said.

The crash, which resulted in minor injuries, occurred in Dallas in December 2025, according to data submitted to NHTSA. In the accident, a Hyundai Ioniq 5 equipped with Avride clipped the open driver’s door of a parked pickup truck. One of the truck’s occupants suffered minor injuries that did not require hospitalization.

Another crash in Dallas in December involved an Abride robotaxi attempting to change lanes to avoid a parked pickup truck, according to data submitted to NHTSA. Avride’s car collided with the van next to it, damaging both cars.

Several collisions resulted in other vehicles transforming into the Avride robotaxi, but it is unclear from the accounts whether the robotaxi had a chance to avoid those collisions. In at least one accident, Avride’s vehicle crashed into a trash can. Only one of the reported crashes states that a safety monitor attempted to intervene.