The option was "causing too much confusion," Elon Musk said. Of course, it doesn't help that Tesla has also been facing lawsuits over the phantom nature of the feature, not to mention advocacy groups claiming the Autopilot name was misleading. The automaker might not want to risk a further outcry from customers, even if true autonomy is relatively close at hand.

It might be, too. The company recently asked staff to beta test its self-driving system, suggesting the feature is close to being road-worthy. This doesn't mean you'll get to use it when ready (the odds are that your state doesn't allow full autonomy outside of testing), but you'll at least get something for your money.