Seven yes votes and a sealed file: Tesla's Europe-wide FSD slips to December

October 6 is now 25 minutes of discussion

The committee that was expected to clear Tesla's "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" for all 27 EU states meets in Brussels on October 6, but the published agenda↗ gives the file a 25-minute "continuation of discussions" and no vote. The committee does not sit again until December ¹². Elon Musk's reaction, on X, was one word: "sigh" ².

One sealed Dutch file became seven countries

The Dutch authority RDW approved FSD provisionally in April, under UN Regulation 171, with exemptions for maneuvers existing rules do not allow. Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, Slovenia and Czechia then recognized that certification without safety reviews of their own; with the Netherlands, seven countries holding roughly 12% of the EU's population ¹³. The test data behind the April approval is sealed at Tesla's request as confidential business information↗ ³.

The blockers now have Brussels data

Sweden's transport administration formally urged rejection unless Tesla removes the system's ability to exceed posted limits, and France's transport minister Philippe Tabarot rules the "safety tradeoffs" insufficient ³⁴. On September 24 the Brussels group Johanna.be published three days and 400 km of testing↗: FSD ran over the limit in 55% of 30 km/h segments, averaging 44 km/h, while the dashboard showed 50 in most 30 zones ⁵⁶⁷⁸. "Akin to a passenger constantly reassuring the driver that the speed limit is 50," the report says ⁶.

The software picks the speed, the human keeps the ticket

Flanders, which signed off on June 10, calls FSD "a learning system" whose driver "remains 100% responsible" ⁵⁶. Tesla's counter is its own dataset, 100 million km from about 70,000 European customers, claiming 4.1x fewer crashes and no excessive speeding ³. The arithmetic is harder: passage takes 15 states and 65% of the population, and France, Germany, Italy and Spain, holding about 58%, have not said yes ¹.

December in Brussels, September 30 in Washington

The earliest EU vote is December. The US deadline is sooner: by September 30, Tesla must answer a NHTSA Special Order under oath on how a Cybercab with no steering wheel, pedals or mirrors was certified as street legal, with penalties up to $139 million ⁹.

Watch the count, not the statements

Finland says it could still approve given more information, and Sweden's government now backs EU-wide approval in principle ³. Until the Dutch file is unsealed, seven national approvals rest on one regulator's "trust us" ³.