> “It’s a beta” and the unsaid “and I don’t care about other peoples’ lives anyways”.

Yes, it's a bit distressing having myself and the people I care about be treated as NPCs to some Tesla owners as they beta test their new toys on public roadways.

I don't disagree, but I can't help but wonder if people feel the same about Ford's pre-collision assist with automatic emergency braking or, back in the day, anti-lock brakes.

Sooner or later, these technologies are either public-ready or they aren't. If Tesla autopilot isn't public-ready, I agree it shouldn't be on the road, but I suddenly realize I have no idea by what criteria the system was cleared for public-access roads.

I would absolutely not expect a feature attached to my car to be beta grade, no. And if early ABS systems had issues, I’d expect them to be recalled and fixed at the manufacturers cost.

The question is really: does your expectation match reality, or were you just uninformed of there being existing issues on ABS systems? Or more generally: have things always been the way we currently see them and we just less informed in the past, or has there actually been a change?

I’m not of the right age to know, honestly. That being said I have never seen a car maker ship a feature to me that is self described as a beta. Obviously mistakes happen and plenty of features fall short, but seeing a company knowingly ship a feature incomplete safety system for real world testing by their users with a mere EULA agreement seems like a step beyond the hypothetical of the ABS you raise.

I don't understand why there's so much significance attached to the label. I've seen a non-beta try to run off the road in the same scenario that the beta handles just fine. Its not an isolated example.

To me, that'd just mean one company, the one with the beta label, has higher standards.

I have long said that society has become such risk adverse that if someone invented a technology like the car today it would never be allowed in society.

I said this pre-COVID, and COVID has now cemented this idea, we will not accept any level of risk at all... None.

If it is not perfectly safe everything should be banned, locked down, or otherwise prohibited by law

The topic in question, Teslas (and other autonomous vehicles) on the road, would seem to suggest the opposite, no? While errors do seem to be relatively low, they do exist, and there is a large portion of people still pushing for their immediate use and I am not aware of the (US) government stepping in and banning their usage.