The agency already has an investigation underway related to Tesla's full-self driving systems. A representative for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Building trust in robotaxis If videos of erratic driving continue to spread, Tesla could have an issue with potential customers becoming leery of the service. On Tuesday, Elon Musk reposted a video on X showing a robotaxi navigating a tricky traffic situation. Post-launch, convincing more people about the safety of the project may take additional work. "Gaining public trust in black-box autonomous systems is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem," said Sayan Mitra, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering. Mitra says there are three ways to work through that conundrum, including what Tesla is already doing: wide-scale, real-world testing. "This carries significant risks," Mitra said. "These trials involve the public – pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers – who have not explicitly consented to the associated risks." Going forward, Mitra said, Tesla could follow the aviation industry's lead and cooperate with regulatory authorities, including federal agencies, to develop a certification system for autonomous vehicles. A third strategy involves generating mathematical models to help prove Tesla's safety guarantees. "While this may sound ambitious, such techniques already underpin the safety of systems like cryptographic protocols, aircraft controllers and distributed computing infrastructure," Mitra said. Those models could begin by focusing on specific areas like highway travel. "Even partial results, grounded in explicit and verifiable assumptions, would mark a significant advance over opaque, heuristic-based safety claims," Mitra said. For now, however, it looks like Tesla's main proof of concept will be the robotaxis themselves, driving autonomously in and around Austin. Correction, June 25: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the University of Illinois' engineering school. It is the Grainger College of Engineering.