A fired manager overseeing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving testing operations in Houston is now suing the company for unlawful retaliation after escalating concerns about “systemic safety oversight defects,” according to a lawsuit spotted by The Independent. The manager, Javier Medrano, claims Tesla’s unwillingness to offer extra resources or hire more staff created a scenario where the company’s robotaxis became “rolling hazards on public streets.”
Engadget has asked Tesla to comment on the lawsuit. We’ll update this article if we hear back.
The filing states that Medrano managed a team of safety operators who rode in Tesla vehicles being used to test the company’s Full Self-Driving software from October 2024 to May 1, 2025. As a manager, Medrano was expected to “actively audit driving clips, conduct weekly ride-alongs and manage safety incidents,” and offer significant on-call availability during the week. Medrano’s issues began because the number of operators he was responsible for grew to 38 — beyond the 1-to-15 ratio he claims Tesla Autopilot Director Pete Scheutzow set as the baseline.
The lawsuit claims that during a conversation with Scheutzow, Medrano tried to raise his concern that the current ratio of managers to operators could lead to him “not sleeping or eating correctly,” but Scheutzow allegedly dismissed the issue by saying “I don’t get the impression you’re drowning.” The lawsuit claims Tesla’s unwillingness to respond to Medrano led to the ultimate failure of the company’s “under-resourced safety structure” in the form of a crash that happened under Medrano’s watch.
Medrano processed the accident “while physically asleep,” the lawsuit claims, and ended up giving the operator “unsafe guidance” that led to her “remaining at the unsafe scene for an hour where she was approached by an allegedly impaired third party.” Following the accident, the lawsuit says Medrano’s attempts to formally escalate the safety issues that led to the accident and prove that Tesla was withholding resources from his Houston region led to him being fired.
In return for what the lawsuit claims is unlawful retaliation, Medrano is asking to be reinstated to his role and seeking fees like restitution for an unvested equity award, front and back pay and compensatory damages for “emotional distress, familial strain and severe financial stress.” Tesla’s technical approach to autonomous vehicles has been criticized in the past, but the lawsuit suggests managerial problems could also be making the company’s robotaxis unsafe.
That’s not to say the company’s software isn’t also a concern. In May, Reuters reported that Tesla may be exaggerating the safety of its Full Self-Driving software. Data labelers who work with the camera footage Teslas use to navigate regularly see FSD fail at basic driving tasks, according to the report. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also currently investigating the company’s self-driving technology. While a version of Tesla’s software that requires driver supervision is available to subscribe to now, crashes, the slow rollout of the company’s robotaxi service and now apparent management issues all make the success of Full Self-Driving increasingly uncertain.
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