Uber partner Avride is being investigated for self-driving accidents

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into Avride, a robotaxi company that has partnered with Uber, after discovering more than a dozen accidents with minor injuries.

The Department of Defense’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said all 16 accidents it found were related to the “skills” of Avride’s auto-driving system, which apparently has difficulty changing lanes, responding to other vehicles on the same road, and responding to stationary objects.

All accidents have occurred while Avride vehicles were under the supervision of a safety officer in the driver’s seat. When asked, Avride refused to explain why the security forces did not intervene in the accidents. The company said it reported the accidents to NHTSA as required by the agency’s 2021 Standing General Order on driving.

“We have implemented technical and operational mitigation measures to address the findings of each incident reported between December 2025 and March 2026, and have improved operational efficiency,” the company said. “All of our operations continue to grow, while the number of incidents related to our distance has steadily decreased.”

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Avride, best known for its roadside delivery robots, is owned by Nebius, formerly Yandex NV, a Netherlands-based company. he sold his Russian business in 2024. The company has also spent years developing and testing self-driving cars, and it entered into a partnership with Uber in 2024. The following year, Uber and its parent company Nebius. he agreed making “discretionary investments and other commitments” to Avride of up to $375 million.

The investigation comes months after the Uber incident he started giving money at Avride robotaxis in Dallas, Texas, where “most of the reported accidents have occurred,” according to ODI. Some of these accidents also happened in Austin, Texas. One of the most reported accidents happened when a robotaxi was carrying a person.

The research comes amid widespread testing, deployment, and expansion of autonomous vehicle technologies by many companies in the United States, which is generating significant interest.

Waymo is currently under investigation by NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board for illegal behavior around school busesand the accident of January itself one of Alfabeti’s robots hit a child.

The ODI said on Friday that it had completed preliminary video analysis of every Avride accident. The videos, according to the office, show “instances of AVs changing lanes into the lane or directly into other vehicles traveling in the lane adjacent to the AV; failure to slow down or stop for slow-moving vehicles or stopping vehicles in the lane and ahead; failure to slow down or avoid vehicles entering the lane and jumping the lane and the lane ahead; ahead.”

The accident that caused minor injuries occurred in December 2025 in Dallas, according to reports filed with the NHTSA. It also involved an Avride-equipped Hyundai Ioniq 5 that locked the driver’s side door of a parked vehicle. One of the people in the car suffered minor injuries that did not require hospitalization.

Another December crash in Dallas involved an Avride robotaxi that tried to change lanes to avoid a parked car, according to NHTSA records. Avride’s car flipped into the van next to it, resulting in both vehicles being damaged.

Several crashes involved some of the vehicles that were transformed into Avride’s robotaxis, although it is not clear from the description if there was a chance for the robotaxis to avoid these collisions. At least one accident involved an Avride vehicle that fell on the pavement. Only one of the reported accidents describes a safety intervention.