The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is re-examining its opinion that it does not regulate Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software. The news comes after numerous safety advocates and regulators expressed concern about the company’s willingness to allow its customers to test its Level 2 driving features in public.
The state’s DMV oversees the nation’s largest self-driving vehicle testing program, with more than 60 companies allowed to operate test vehicles on public roads. Only a handful of companies are approved to operate fully autonomous vehicles without a safety driver, and even fewer are approved to deploy vehicles for commercial purposes.
Unlike other companies testing autonomous vehicles in the state, Tesla is using its own customers rather than trained safety drivers to monitor the technology. Tesla owners must pay $12,000 for the FSD option, up from $10,000 last year. While Tesla does have 32 vehicles registered with the DMV right now, it regularly reports little or no miles on Autopilot.
The DMV has said in the past that Tesla’s FSD is not part of its self-driving vehicle testing program because it still needs a human driver to monitor the vehicle. But in a letter to state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, the agency now says it is “revisiting” the decision.
DMV Director Steve Gordon said in the letter that the agency previously believed the FSD beta version was outside the scope of DMV’s autonomous vehicle regulations, but recently notified Tesla that it would be “in the face of a recent software update that indicates a dangerous use of the technology” video, a public investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and hearing from other experts in the field,” revisiting the decision.
The NHTSA is currently investigating an incident involving a Tesla vehicle hitting a parked emergency vehicle using Autopilot technology.
“If the capability of the feature meets the definition of an autonomous vehicle under California law and regulations, the DMV will take steps to ensure Tesla operates under the appropriate autonomous vehicle license,” Gordon wrote.
Gordon went on to point out that the DMV conducted several demonstrations of the FSD beta, and concluded that it was a Level 2 system after consulting with experts at UC Berkeley. During a demonstration in November 2020, the DMV found that the vehicle could not safely perform all of its own driving tasks.
In addition, Gordon cited a letter from Tesla in which the company laid out a list of restrictions…including the inability to recognize or respond to “static objects, road debris, emergency vehicles, construction areas, large Controlled intersections, inclement weather, complex vehicles on driving paths and unmapped roads”.
The DMV is also reviewing Tesla’s use of the term “Full Self-Driving” in its branding, which has been criticized by experts and government officials as misleading to customers. Depending on the DMV’s decision, Tesla could find itself beset by a whole host of new regulatory issues. Companies testing self-driving vehicles in California must report any vehicle crashes — no matter how minor — and how often human drivers are forced to take control of self-driving vehicles.
