A Rename Agreed In September, Announced On 6 October
Tesla has used the name Tesla Assisted Driving on its European sales website since Friday 9 October, in place of Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Wired reported the change and TechCrunch ties it to pushback from Germany's transport ministry.
The ministry's statement of 6 October says the old name was misleading because the system does not take over the full driving task, and that Tesla itself offered the new name in talks in September. Transport minister Steffen Bilger called the FSD name somewhat misleading and says he will now advocate approval of the renamed system across Europe ahead of an EU-wide vote.
The German news agency dpa-AFX reports the ministry describing a constructive agreement with Tesla on technical questions and liability, and says the agreement includes a ceiling of 10 percent above the permitted speed. At a 50 km/h limit that is 55 km/h. Electrek, citing Reuters, says the Dutch-approved version allows up to 50 percent over the detected limit, which would be 75 km/h in the same zone by our arithmetic.
Where Approval Stands
Approval is a patchwork of countries and the EU-wide decision is still to come.
| Item | Status on 9 October |
|---|---|
| Approved countries, per Tesla's page | Eight: Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, Slovenia, Czechia, Croatia |
| Germany | Not on Tesla's list, but backs EU approval |
| EU-wide vote | Slipped to December at the earliest |
| Support needed | 15 of 27 member states representing 65 percent of the EU population |
| Concerns about speeding | France and Sweden |
| Speed above the limit | Germany: up to 10 percent. Dutch-approved version: up to 50 percent (Reuters, via Electrek) |
The list of eight comes from Tesla's own page, and Electrek notes Germany is not yet on it. The Netherlands moved first this spring, which Wired describes as provisional permission.
What The German Page Still Promises
According to Electrek, the new German page is a translation of Tesla's US Full Self-Driving page with the product name swapped.
It still says the car will drive almost anywhere with minimal intervention under active supervision, still claims the system is seven times safer than human drivers against an estimated US average (per Tesla's own footnote) and still ends with a section titled "Die Zukunft ist autonom" that promotes Robotaxi and Cybercab. In the US, Tesla still sells the same product as Full Self-Driving (Supervised) at 99 dollars a month.
Reuters reported this week, as TechCrunch and Wired relay, that Tesla's European approval campaign leaned on faulty company safety research and that Tesla presented misleading safety data to European regulators. TechCrunch adds that the Dutch regulator RDW faced heavy pressure from Tesla and its online supporters. Wired recalls that California's motor vehicle department concluded last year that the terms Full Self-Driving and Autopilot were misleading. Tesla did not immediately respond to Wired's request for comment. These are Reuters' reports and we have not seen the documents behind them.
What Fleet And Company-Car Buyers Should Check
The driver stays responsible whatever the badge says. Per the ministry, responsibility is 100 percent the driver's. Any speeding is the driver's liability. Treat the system as driver assistance and write your policy that way.
Check your fleet policy, lease contract and insurance documents for the phrases self-driving and Full Self-Driving, because the manufacturer's name for the feature is changing while older paperwork may still use the old one. That is a Servola suggestion and not legal advice.
Check approval status by country too, since eight countries are on Tesla's list and Germany is not yet. And expect behaviour to differ: if the 10 percent ceiling becomes the EU rule, the feature will drive differently from the Dutch-approved version, and Electrek notes Tesla would need to change FSD, which often goes well beyond 10 percent. None of the sources gives a European price for the feature and the 99 dollars a month is a US figure.
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