France starts Tesla (TSLA.US) FSD road test, EU approves or enters countdown

The Zhitong Finance App learned that French Minister of Transport Philippe Tabarot (Philippe Tabarot) said that France has begun testing two Tesla (TSLA.US) cars to more comprehensively evaluate their FSD (Full Self-Driving) advanced driver assistance systems. The move is expected to push Europe to take a key step towards approving Elon Musk's autonomous driving technology.

In April of this year, the Dutch Roads Authority (RDW) temporarily approved the use of Tesla FSD in the Netherlands. Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, and Lithuania followed suit, paving the way for a vote to be held at the EU level as early as next month.

FSD is a driver assistance system that can accelerate, brake, and steer while the driver remains in charge at any time, but it does not yet constitute autonomous driving in the full sense of the word.

Tabarro said in July that in terms of safety trade-offs (especially in terms of speed limits and drivers' attention warnings), it is not enough to support the approval authorization. He posted on the X platform on Tuesday evening that after months of close cooperation with Tesla on technology adaptation required for French approval, he had “constructive exchanges” with Musk on related technology. “With Tesla supplying two FSD-equipped vehicles, we are now entering a new phase — actual road testing,” he said.

Specifically, French regulators found that when detecting rapid traffic flow in the surrounding area, the FSD may automatically increase the speed to 70 km/h (50 km/h speed limit section) without the driver's clear instructions. This potential risk of “speeding with traffic flow” has become one of the core concerns that France previously refused to allow.

However, over the past few months, the French authorities have been working closely with Tesla on technology adaptation. On Wednesday evening, Tabaro had a “constructive exchange” with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the X platform (originally Twitter). After the meeting, Tabaro announced that Tesla will provide two test vehicles equipped with FSD, and France has thus entered the “actual vehicle road test stage.”

According to a source from the French Ministry of Transport, the French side hopes to test on its own to verify the data provided by the Netherlands and Tesla, and conduct field tests on French roads. The goal is to obtain test results in mid-late September in order to participate in voting at the EU level in the next few months. The source said the vote could take place next month or early December, and it is expected that Tesla will be open to resolve French concerns, thereby promoting approval of the technology in Europe.

It should be emphasized that FSD is currently still an L2 advanced driver assistance system and is not truly fully autonomous driving. The system controls the vehicle's acceleration, braking, and steering, but the driver must always be alert and ready to take over. The car is equipped with a camera to monitor whether the driver is alert in real time.

Tesla FSD uses a pure vision solution and relies on data collected from more than 6 million Tesla vehicles around the world for artificial intelligence training. The European version of the FSD is a “special edition”. It uses EU R-171 regulations. The driving intervention requirements are stricter and the strategy is more conservative, and there is a clear difference in functional rights from the US version.