diff --git a/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go b/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
index e2722b44394..406ac6ea426 100644
--- a/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
+++ b/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
@@ -121,8 +121,12 @@ func NewKubeletFlags() *KubeletFlags {
 		KubeConfig:              flag.NewStringFlag("/var/lib/kubelet/kubeconfig"),
 		ContainerRuntimeOptions: *NewContainerRuntimeOptions(),
 		CertDirectory:           "/var/run/kubernetes",
-		CloudProvider:           v1alpha1.AutoDetectCloudProvider,
 		RootDirectory:           v1alpha1.DefaultRootDir,
+		// DEPRECATED: auto detecting cloud providers goes against the initiative
+		// for out-of-tree cloud providers as we'll now depend on cAdvisor integrations
+		// with cloud providers instead of in the core repo.
+		// More details here: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/50986
+		CloudProvider: v1alpha1.AutoDetectCloudProvider,
 	}
 }
 
@@ -220,7 +224,7 @@ func (f *KubeletFlags) AddFlags(fs *pflag.FlagSet) {
 	fs.StringVar(&f.CertDirectory, "cert-dir", f.CertDirectory, "The directory where the TLS certs are located. "+
 		"If --tls-cert-file and --tls-private-key-file are provided, this flag will be ignored.")
 
-	fs.StringVar(&f.CloudProvider, "cloud-provider", f.CloudProvider, "The provider for cloud services. By default, kubelet will attempt to auto-detect the cloud provider. Specify empty string for running with no cloud provider.")
+	fs.StringVar(&f.CloudProvider, "cloud-provider", f.CloudProvider, "The provider for cloud services. By default, kubelet will attempt to auto-detect the cloud provider (deprecated). Specify empty string for running with no cloud provider, this will be the default in upcoming releases.")
 	fs.StringVar(&f.CloudConfigFile, "cloud-config", f.CloudConfigFile, "The path to the cloud provider configuration file.  Empty string for no configuration file.")
 
 	fs.StringVar(&f.RootDirectory, "root-dir", f.RootDirectory, "Directory path for managing kubelet files (volume mounts,etc).")
diff --git a/cmd/kubelet/app/server.go b/cmd/kubelet/app/server.go
index edd7f7a5bcd..ddd653bcb6a 100644
--- a/cmd/kubelet/app/server.go
+++ b/cmd/kubelet/app/server.go
@@ -283,6 +283,10 @@ func run(s *options.KubeletServer, kubeDeps *kubelet.Dependencies) (err error) {
 		}
 	}
 
+	if s.CloudProvider == kubeletconfigv1alpha1.AutoDetectCloudProvider {
+		glog.Warning("--cloud-provider=auto-detect is deprecated. The desired cloud provider should be set explicitly")
+	}
+
 	if kubeDeps.Cloud == nil {
 		if !cloudprovider.IsExternal(s.CloudProvider) && s.CloudProvider != kubeletconfigv1alpha1.AutoDetectCloudProvider {
 			cloud, err := cloudprovider.InitCloudProvider(s.CloudProvider, s.CloudConfigFile)
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/apis/kubeletconfig/v1alpha1/defaults.go b/pkg/kubelet/apis/kubeletconfig/v1alpha1/defaults.go
index 192da88f3b7..5d82438f94b 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/apis/kubeletconfig/v1alpha1/defaults.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/apis/kubeletconfig/v1alpha1/defaults.go
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ import (
 const (
 	DefaultRootDir = "/var/lib/kubelet"
 
+	// DEPRECATED: auto detecting cloud providers goes against the initiative
+	// for out-of-tree cloud providers as we'll now depend on cAdvisor integrations
+	// with cloud providers instead of in the core repo.
+	// More details here: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/50986
 	AutoDetectCloudProvider = "auto-detect"
 
 	defaultIPTablesMasqueradeBit = 14
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
index 65acbcad3eb..9edfabf400c 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -965,7 +965,11 @@ type Kubelet struct {
 	volumeManager volumemanager.VolumeManager
 
 	// Cloud provider interface.
-	cloud                   cloudprovider.Interface
+	cloud cloudprovider.Interface
+	// DEPRECATED: auto detecting cloud providers goes against the initiative
+	// for out-of-tree cloud providers as we'll now depend on cAdvisor integrations
+	// with cloud providers instead of in the core repo.
+	// More details here: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/50986
 	autoDetectCloudProvider bool
 	// Indicates that the node initialization happens in an external cloud controller
 	externalCloudProvider bool