Collisions and deaths involving Tesla cars with Autopilot engaged have drawn the attention of the press and government agencies. Industry observers and academics criticized Tesla's decision to use untrained consumers to validate the beta software as dangerous and irresponsible. In October 2020, Tesla started a Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability beta program in the United States as of February 2023, Tesla has about 360,000 participants in this program. In 2019, some experts criticized Tesla vehicles' lack of lidar, which is used by other companies working on autonomous driving. From 2016 through 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly made inaccurate predictions as to when Tesla would be able to achieve Level 5 autonomy. Tesla Autopilot engaged on I-80 near Lake TahoeĪs an upgrade to the capabilities of Autopilot, the company's stated intent is to offer full autonomous driving (SAE Level 5) at a future time, acknowledging that technical and regulatory hurdles must be overcome to achieve this goal.