EU vote on Tesla's “supervised autonomous driving” system postponed

Reuters Stockholm, September 25 - According to an agenda published on the official EU website, the vote originally scheduled for October on allowing Tesla's "supervised Full Self-Driving" (FSD) system to be used across the entire EU has been postponed, with the next possible decision date no earlier than December.

• The Dutch regulator RDW approved the (link) system in April, followed by approvals in Belgium (link) and a few other (link) countries

• RDW has also proposed approving the software across the entire EU

• In a post on the X platform on September 1, Tesla said that an EU-wide vote (link) could be held on October 6

• However, the agenda for the October 6 meeting of the Technical Committee for Motor Vehicles (TCMV), comprising representatives of EU member states and the European Commission, only lists “continued discussion” on the Dutch request for Article 39 authorization, with 25 minutes allocated for this discussion

• The committee has previously discussed Tesla's application in two meetings. According to the current agenda, the next TCMV meeting after October is scheduled for December, which appears to be the earliest opportunity for a vote

• Rolling out the feature EU-wide requires "qualified majority" support from 15 of the EU's 27 member states, whose combined population must make up 65% of the EU's total population

• Several EU countries, including Sweden, have expressed concerns about FSD’s speeding issues (link), while the countries that have approved the system state that drivers remain responsible for complying with traffic regulations

• In March 2024, the committee approved Ford’s F.N BlueCruise driving assistance system (link), with Germany as the sponsor of that proposal

• Tesla says approval of FSD is crucial for boosting its sales in Europe. Amid growing competition from Chinese electric vehicle makers, Tesla is working to regain market share in Europe

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