Tesla has released their full self-driving capability upgrade for selected vehicles some time ago. The beta testing is nothing new in the software world, but when the software is something like this it's entirely different thing. They are literally putting human lives at the stake.
While they have covered their own base well ensuring the responsibility is still on the driver it won't help the bad press any possible accidents could cause to the whole industry. A single negative case could put the lawmakers in a tough position when discussing allowing those autonomous vehicles on the streets.
Tesla could very well be shooting their own foot risking it like this. Other traditional car makers can see such an accident and bad press an opportunity to undermine the whole progress of self-driving capabilities. If they see they themselves can't compete with Tesla's technological advancements they can start lobbying against such advancements making Tesla's competitive advantage disappear and giving them a fighting chance.
Self-driving cars might not be a necessity, but well developed autonomous system can be an order of magnitude safer than all the human drivers.