California reviews whether Tesla's self-driving tests require oversight

California is evaluating whether Tesla's self-driving tests require regulatory oversight, following "videos showing a dangerous use of that technology" and federal investigations into Tesla vehicle crashes, a state regulator said.

The California department of motor vehicles previous said that Tesla's full self-driving, or FSD, beta requires human intervention and therefore is not subject to its regulations on autonomous vehicles.

But the agency is revisiting that decision "following recent software updates, videos showing a dangerous use of that technology, open investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the opinions of other experts", the department said in a letter on Friday to Lena Gonzalez, chair of the state senate transportation committee.

The Los Angeles Times first reported the letter.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Tesla has been expanding the rollout of what it describes as the "beta" of its advanced driver assistant software, sparking safety concerns by effectively allowing untrained drivers to test how well the technology works on public roads.

Critics say Tesla was able to avoid state regulatory oversight by telling the department of motor vehicles that its FSD features do not make its cars autonomous.