California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has opened a review into Tesla’s public Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta test program.
On Tuesday night a DMV spokesperson said the review will determine if the software should be considered as “autonomous” and covered under the DMVs autonomous vehicle regulations.
It currently doesn’t fall under that regulation as it still requires a human driver and is considered as a Level 2 system by the DMV.
In a letter to the chair of the Senate’s transportation committee, Sen. Lena Gonzalez, the DMV said the review stems from “recent software updates, videos showing dangerous use of that technology, open investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the opinions of other experts in this space.”
According to a report in the LA Times by noted Tesla critic Russ Mitchell, Tesla was informed of the review on January 5, 2022.
If the DMV determines the FSD Beta program should be covered by their autonomous vehicle regulations, Tesla would have to publicly report crashes and system failures.
The automaker would also have to strengthen the requirements before someone can be allowed to download and use the software.
There are currently estimated to be about 12,000 public FSD beta testers.
