- France’s transport minister said Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system does not meet safety standards, citing risks such as speeding and insufficient driver attention in urban areas.
- Minister Philippe Tabarot emphasized that FSD is not fully autonomous and that drivers remain legally responsible at all times.
- The Netherlands has granted provisional approval to FSD, but an EU-wide rollout requires a qualified majority vote, not expected before October.
France has flagged risks related to speeding, driver attention, and performance in complex urban environments, stating that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system does not yet meet the country’s safety standards for approval. The announcement came just hours before Tesla’s second-quarter results, with TSLA shares edging 0.3% lower after posting losses in four of the past five trading sessions.
In an official video on France’s Agora platform, Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said that while the advanced driver assistance system offers significant technological progress, its safety benefits are not yet sufficient to justify authorization. He emphasized that FSD is not a fully autonomous driving system and that drivers remain legally responsible for the vehicle at all times.
“First, we observed that the system allows for speeding. If it detects that the vehicles around it are traveling faster, it can, in other words, drive at 70 km/h instead of 50 km/h if traffic is moving at that speed, and this without any explicit request from the driver,” Tabarot said. “Another example: according to the data we have, the system cannot guarantee optimal driver attention in urban areas and during the most complex maneuvers, such as lane changes, intersections, or roundabouts.”
The minister said France is continuing technical discussions with Tesla, the Netherlands, and other European countries to further evaluate the technology. Despite withholding approval, he stressed that France supports advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicle technologies, provided they meet strict safety standards, and aims to enable certified autonomous vehicles by 2027.
In April, the Dutch regulator RDW granted FSD (Supervised) a provisional approval, allowing the system to operate on all roads in the Netherlands, and informed the European Commission of its intention to support broader European adoption. An EU-wide rollout requires support by a qualified majority of 15 of the bloc’s 27 member states, with a vote not expected before October, Europe-2026-06-30/”>according to reports. Meanwhile, retail sentiment remained bullish ahead of the quarterly results, though one user described the chart as “one of the most uncertain setups” seen in a while.
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