Elon Musk’s biggest bet hits a pothole: Tesla robotaxis are crashing four times more than human drivers

TL;DR: Tesla’s fledgling robotaxi service logged five new crashes in December and January, bringing the total to 14 since launching in Austin, Texas, last summer. The crash rate? Nearly four times higher than human drivers—a serious problem for a company betting its future on autonomous vehicles. It’s raising a question the entire industry can’t yet answer: Are robotaxis actually safer than having humans behind the wheel?

What happened: These latest Tesla crashes in Austin involved “a...