Tesla robotaxis currently have human drivers while the company gets its permissions worked out, but one SF Tesla robotaxi rider saw their human driver fall asleep at the wheel multiple times on their ride.

We heard in July that Tesla was planning to roll out its robotaxis in SF, but since the company does not have state permits for self-driving robotaxis, there is a human driver behind the wheel for these SF rides. Tesla is also being careful not to use the terms "robotaxi,” "autonomous," or "self-driving," and if you call for a Tesla robotaxi, there will be a human being driving it.

My Tesla Robotaxi “safety” driver fell asleep
byu/ohmichael insanfrancisco

But does this make you feel safer? Ars Technica picks up on this Reddit post where a Tesla robotaxi customer took video of their driver falling asleep at the wheel. Moreover, the rider says that the driver fell asleep three times over the course of the ride.

“I took a Tesla Robotaxi in SF just over a week ago. I have used the service a few times before and it has always been great,” Reddit poster ohmichael says in the post. "This time was different. The safety driver literally fell asleep at least three times during the ride. Each time the car’s pay attention safety alert went off and the beeping is what woke him back up."

Many of the commenters who responded said that the original poster should have taken this up with the driver. Others said the poster should submit the video to the California Pubic Utilities Commission that handles state robotaxi regulation. But one commenter even chimed in that they had the exact same driver fall asleep on them on their Tesla robotaxi ride.

“Dude! This was my driver too,” one commenter replied. “I already reported him to Tesla. Wtf?? It was 7am driving from Temescal to SF. Took an hour with traffic and it was just this the entire time.”

As Ars Technica points out, "Being a human safety driver in an autonomous car is a relatively hard task, and Waymo insists on a lot of training before letting its employees loose in its cars on the road.” Though that outlet insightfully adds, “It’s possible that Tesla is being far less diligent in this regard."

We have not previously seen video of Tesla robotaxi drivers falling asleep at the wheel. But back in August, there were similar videos of an East Bay driver asleep at the wheel of a Tesla in Full Self-Driving Mode.

Related: Tesla Rolls Out Ride-Hail Service In Bay Area, Careful Not to Call It 'Robotaxi' [SFist]

Image: ohmichael via Reddit