Contributors: Nate Kuta, Andrew Nelson, Louis Smith

Recently, concern over how to regulate autonomous vehicles has become an increasingly pressing issue. With videos emerging of drivers behind the wheel of autonomous cars reading the newspaper, it is not hard to see why. Many of these drivers own a Tesla. Tesla has been able to update the software of their Model S much like smartphone owners can update their phones. These updates have included a beta, or test version of Tesla’s autopilot technology.

Tesla urges their drivers to remain fully aware and engaged while using the autopilot function, but this is not always the case. And Tesla’s ability to quickly update the software of their cars has allowed for the company to introduce the technology to public roads before any real regulations have been made. Now the question being posed is whether or not regulators can keep up with companies like Tesla which can simply update their existing models. As for drivers disobeying Tesla’s directions to “remain engaged and aware when Autosteer is enabled,” Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk says that the company is in the planning process of “some additional constraints.”

One main problem regulators have with cars like Tesla’s Model S is that Tesla can and does send down mass updates to the car’s computer system, which effectively acts as a beta program that goes through no regulation or oversight. “Beta software typically means that a company is not fully releasing this to the public,” said associate professor of engineering practice at USC Jeffrey Miller, “They are releasing it to people who are willing to test it with the understanding there will be bugs in it.”

Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx also weighed in on the matter of autonomous cars, saying “Washington should not be an impediment to technology improving our overall system.” Currently, Washington D.C. and four states-California, Michigan, Nevada, and Florida-have laws which allow general oversight of testing and selling of autonomous vehicles. However, these laws are anything but uniform, with some states being more lenient than others. In all of these states, regulation is far more lax than in Europe and Asia. European and Asian drivers have yet to be able to access the autopilot function of their Teslas, and this will remain the case until their respective governments give them the right to do so.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is part of the Department of Transportation, says its mission is to “save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce vehicle-related crashes.” Thus far, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, has stated that Tesla’s autopilot feature has not been at fault in any accidents and that he is only aware of the feature preventing accidents.

Tesla’s autopilot function may not have caused any accidents, but as more Model S cars become intertwined with traditional drivers, the likelihood of Tesla’s autopilot function causing an accident will only increase. The NHTSA will have to decide how to regulate driverless cars, but this is a difficult situation to approach. In short, driverless cars are complex systems, and different companies are developing them in different ways. Regulating the technology at these stages, in its infancy, is difficult.

In regards to the regulation of autonomous vehicles Jeffrey Miller stated, “Very rarely do we get proactive laws. They’re always reactive,” he said. “Right now we have an opportunity to get in front of the technology. We’ve had these small, incremental releases to the public, and we’ll continue to see small, incremental releases until we see a completely driverless vehicle around 2019, 2020.”

So, the NHTSA has the opportunity to take an approach similar to that of Asian and European countries and not allow the beta testing of autopilot features. Miller, however, thinks this is unlikely because Washington has typically favored innovation and an advancement towards safety. Ultimately, the introduction of these features is intended to increase safety, and it likely will as long as drivers put down their newspapers and remain engaged.