I don't fully understand your argument - are you saying FSD should be tested publicly, because we allow other impaired drivers as well? Wouldn't the solution be to strictly enforce the ban of impaired driving, on the one hand, and test FSD privately using trained supervisors, on the other hand?

If effectively enforcing the ban on impaired driving was a viable option that was truly on the table then yes, I would 100% be in favor of requiring this testing to happen privately. Breathalyzer for engine start, eye tracking to prevent phone usage (which Tesla has btw), more frequent vision/driving tests, etc would improve road safety significantly. But that's just never going to happen, it's a completely unrealistic scenario that requires a huge culture shift, and would be incredibly unpopular policy. Not to mention the public transport infrastructure that needs to be built to support all of these folks who suddenly are no longer allowed to drive but live in areas where driving is a necessity of everyday life. The demographics who'd be affected hardest by these kinds of changes are also vocal voters with high turnout.

Given the state of the public roads now, full of dangerously impaired driver's as it is, we've clearly decided as a society that it's worth the risk to allow this behavior to continue. So in that light, I think it's worth allowing these public tests of autonomous systems under some strict set of rules. I agree these rules shouldn't be exclusively self-enforced by Tesla and co., and there should be some more stringent open transparent reporting requirements around how many systems are active, miles driven, incident reports etc. But with the right controls and oversight in place I think it's a worthwhile endeavor to allow the testing to continue in the spirit of accelerating autonomous driving becoming a reality. It's the impaired drivers that _make_ it more urgent for this system to exist in the first place.

> Not saying FSD Beta is there yet, but Autopilot on Highways might be

Anecdotally I've found the new FSD Beta a huge leap forward when used like "Autopilot" (basically no destination, drive in a straight line for lane keeping). It understands the roads 500% better than the older builds in terms of lane layout, little or no lines, etc.

> Since the US hasn't shown many signs for cracking down on drunk driving…

Kind of curious where you live because the police seem to only look for drunk drivers these days, for the money.

In Phoenix you have to make the police do their job (like take their bumper off) if they don’t think you’ve been drinking because they know they just have to wait a bit to write up a big-dollar ticket.