Tesla Inc.’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Full Self-Driving system exceeded the legal speed limit on 55% of the Brussels road segments in a newly published test, less than two weeks before a possible EU vote that could decide how widely the system can operate across Europe.
Belgian road-safety advocacy group Johanna.be tested 29 stretches of Brussels roads with 30 km/h (@18.5 mph) limits in July. Its study found FSD exceeded the limit on 16 of them, averaging 44 km/h (@27 mph) when it did.
• What should traders watch with TSLA?
The system also displayed the wrong speed limit on roughly 90% of all 29 segments. In some cases, it recognized a 30 km/h sign before switching the displayed limit back to 50 km/h (@31 mph).
That matters because speeding is already one of the main issues dividing European regulators over FSD.
Europe Is Already Split
According to Reuters, Sweden has threatened to oppose broader approval unless Tesla addresses FSD’s ability to exceed legal limits, while France has also raised speeding concerns.
Reuters also reported that the Czech Republic provisionally approved FSD this week after previously questioning its speed-limit compliance. Belgium is one of seven European countries where Tesla says FSD Supervised is now available.
Tesla argues FSD should be allowed to adjust above its detected speed limit when needed to keep pace with surrounding traffic, rather than becoming an obstacle by driving materially slower.
Its European data showed FSD stayed at or below the median speed of surrounding traffic in 98% of 680 higher-speed samples where the system’s maximum speed had been set above the limit it detected.
The Belgian test raises a different problem: what happens if FSD gets the legal limit itself wrong?
EU Vote Could Reshape Rollout
Dutch regulator RDW provisionally approved FSD in April after more than 18 months of testing, allowing Tesla to start rolling the system out in other European countries while regulators considered broader authorization.
A vote could come as early as Oct. 6. Approval requires at least 15 of the EU’s 27 member states representing 65% of its population.
If regulators reject the proposal, the Dutch provisional approval would have to be revoked six months later, Reuters reported, potentially ending the national approvals built on it.
The Belgian study involved one Model 3 and a far smaller test program than RDW’s review. RDW says its testing found FSD Supervised met its safety requirements, with drivers remaining responsible.
Traders are skeptical of Tesla’s other autonomy targets too. Polymarket traders give the company a 16% chance of selling a Cybercab to a retail customer for $30,000 or less by year-end, with more than $57,000 in volume.
Tesla has also said its broader European data showed FSD was 4.1 times less likely to be involved in a collision than manually driven Teslas.
Image: Shutterstock
Recent Comments