California's AV testing rules apply to Tesla's "FSD"

Five years to the day after I criticized Uber for testing its self-proclaimed "self-driving" vehicles on California roads without complying with the testing requirements of California's automated driving law, I find myself criticizing Tesla for testing its self-proclaimed "full self-driving" vehicles on California roads without complying with the testing requirements of California's automated driving law. As I emphasized in 2016, California's rules for "autonomous technology" necessarily apply to inchoate automated driving systems that, in the interest of safety, still use human drivers during on-road testing. "Autonomous vehicles testing with a driver" may be an oxymoron, but as a matter of legislative intent it cannot be a null set. There is even a way to mortar the longstanding linguistic loophole in California's legislation: Automated driving systems undergoing development arguably have the "capability to drive a vehicle without the active physical control or monitoring by a human operator" even though they do not yet have the demonstrated capability to do so safely. When supervised by that (adult) human driver, these nascent systems function like the advanced driver assistance features available in many vehicles today: They merely work unless and until they don't.