Hrmm hrmm… this is a topic that seems to suffer from misconceptions.
Many people mistake “the beta phase” (or alpha for that matter) for some kind of demo of a game which may not be exactly perfect and/or completed just yet… but otherwise fully playable and thus: Fun. This is just not the case: a real beta is NO FUN, at all. And why would you want to give your paying customers something that is NOT FUN? With this statement put out here, let’s look at where this general misconception comes from. 
The Minecraft terminology it is very misleading! I’ve also played it from back when it still sold for 5€ or something and I’ve never ever seen any obvious bug in this still incomplete game… this has nothing to do with a “beta” at all: A beta is a feature complete (!) but buggy/imbalanced version of whatever is currently beta-tested. What Minecraft really went for is already beta-tested and polished milestones that are released along the road of development, technically this has nothing to do with a “beta”. What Daffy and Zeussy want to do is very similar: release building-stones of the final game that have undergone some polish and testing already, something you can give to your customers without having them vomit all over the keyboard after the 5th exception crashing the game within 30 minutes.
Automation’s structure is much different than that of Minecraft too: while Minecraft has a big foundation in it’s 3D world, and all other game elements neatly fit into the already existing world, Automation seems much more modular. The engine designer is almost a stand-alone program that interfaces with the other parts of the game, the same thing is true for the platform designer and the car designer. This is comparable with the world-simulator, and the world-generator, respectively in Minecraft - two more or less unrelated things that interface with each other.
The milestones that are supposed to be released along the road of development of Automation may have imbalances and minor bugs. Also parts of these milestones may undergo changes later on once new building blocks are added on top or fill the missing gaps, some interface polish or reworking is common in these phases too. This is something customers can and will accept… a program that just oozes bugs (a real beta) will never be accepted, no matter how large your disclaimer on the splash-screen might be.
Technically Automation is not in beta phase right now, and not even in alpha phase (Zeussy and Daffy misuse this terminology the same way everyone seems to do these days). On the other hand what is in alpha phase is the engine designer (missing the aspiration tab to actually enter a real beta phase), the platform designer, as well as the car designer.
I hope this gives a different perspective on things and clears up stuff
