It is unclear how many drivers have been revoked access to the beta software. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the number of drivers who lost access to the program.
The beta version of “fully self-driving” was released last October. Tesla’s use of the term “fully self-driving” has long been controversial and criticized by autonomous vehicle experts. For most experts, completely self-driving means a car in which a person can fall asleep safely at the wheel. An observant human driver is not necessary.
The news comes after reports that a letter was sent in February from the National Transportation Safety Board to the National Highway Traffic Safety calling for stricter requirements for testing autonomous driving on public roads.
In the letter, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Tesla is testing on public roads, but with “limited surveillance or reporting requirements.”
Although Tesla includes a disclaimer that ‘currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous,’ NHTSA’s hands-off approach to monitoring AV testing poses a potential risk to drivers and other road users, Sumwalt added.
Earlier this month, Musk tweeted his plans to double the size of Tesla’s beta testing program with version 8.2 and about ten times the number of testers with version 8.3.
He added later on Friday that the “next major release” of the software will be next month.
“Go with pure vision – not even with the help of radar,” Musk tweeted. “This is the path to real-world AI.”
– CNN’s Matt McFarland contributed to this report.