Tesla FSD wins Czechia, speeds in Brussels, skips the UK
Czechia approved Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) this week, a Belgian test found it speeding in 30 zones, and the EU vote has slipped. UK owners who paid £6,800 are still waiting.
It has been a busy week for Tesla's "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" in Europe, and not all of it good. On Monday the Czech Republic said it would let the system onto its roads. On Thursday a Belgian road-safety group reported that it sped through most of the Brussels 30km/h zones it tested. And on Friday it emerged that the EU committee many expected to vote on it on 6 October has scheduled only a discussion, which Electrek says pushes any decision to December at the earliest.
British owners, some of whom have already paid for it, are watching from the sidelines.
A seventh country says yes
Despite the name, FSD (Supervised) is not self-driving in any legal sense. It's a Level 2 driver-assistance system: the car steers, brakes and stops at traffic lights, but the driver must watch the road and be ready to take over. The Dutch vehicle regulator, the RDW, gave it provisional approval in April. Other EU countries can recognise that approval one by one.
Czechia became the seventh to do so. Electrive reports that the Czech Ministry of Transport formally recognised the Dutch approval, following the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium and Slovenia. Reuters notes Czechia had been sceptical, quoting the ministry: "Clarification of specific issues relating to the safety and operation of the system was crucial to the Czech Republic's decision."
The problem with 30 zones
Three days later came the less flattering headline. Johanna.be, a Brussels non-profit that campaigns for pedestrian and cyclist safety, drove Teslas on FSD for about 400km over three days in July. According to Electrek, the car exceeded the limit in 55% of the 30km/h stretches it tested, averaging 44km/h, and in 42% of the 20km/h residential streets.
The cause looks mundane: in most of those zones, the car displayed a 50km/h limit. As the group put it: "It is akin to a passenger constantly reassuring the driver that the speed limit is 50 km/h in nearly every 30-zone through which they pass." The testers also recorded repeated attempts to overtake cyclists where that isn't allowed. Tesla did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.
That matters: Electrek cites WHO data that a pedestrian hit at 44km/h is nearly six times more likely to die than one hit at 30km/h.
Seven countries is not a majority
An EU-wide green light needs a qualified majority in the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV): at least 15 of the 27 member states, representing 65% of the EU's population. By Electrek's count, the seven yeses cover about 12%. Sweden wants FSD stopped from exceeding posted limits, France has refused, and Germany, Italy and Spain haven't signed up.
The published agenda for the 6 October meeting lists only a "continuation of discussions" on the Dutch request, according to TeslaNorth and Electrek.
Where this leaves Britain
The UK isn't part of the EU vote either way. Auto Express reports that British buyers can pay £6,800 for "Full Self-Driving Capability" on a Model 3 or Model Y, but that the most advanced functions stay switched off until the software is approved for British roads. The DfT's consultation on a Statement of Safety Principles for automated vehicles closed on 9 September, and Roads Minister Simon Lightwood's line is that "Safety will always come first."
There's a naming question too. The Automated Vehicles Act 2024 lets ministers ban certain terms from being used to describe vehicles that aren't authorised as self-driving, and the DfT consulted last year on protecting words like "self-driving". If that lands, a product called "Full Self-Driving" that needs a human in charge may have some explaining to do. (Britain's genuinely driverless services have had their own delays.)
To be fair to Tesla
Seven countries and a ministry that changed its mind are not nothing. Flanders' transport ministry, which approved FSD in June, told Reuters the system is learning and the driver "remains 100% responsible". That's how every Level 2 system works, and plenty of human drivers creep over 30 too. Electrive notes Tesla has also published a public dashboard of distance and crash data, which is more openness than some rivals offer. The real question is whether a system that misreads the limit makes a distracted driver more or less likely to notice.
Mind the hype. "Supervised" is doing a lot of work in that product name. So, it turns out, is the driver.
Sources: Electrek (Belgian test), Insurance Journal (via Reuters), Electrive, Reuters via Investing.com, Electrek (EU delay), TeslaNorth, Auto Express, GOV.UK, ETSC, Slaughter and May