Tesla FSD Approved in Slovenia, Expanding to 6 European Countries
Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" (FSD, supervised version) software was approved for road use by Slovenian regulators on September 7, making Slovenia the sixth European country to approve the system, following the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, and Denmark.
The Netherlands was the first country in Europe to approve the FSD supervised version: The Netherlands Vehicle Authority (RDW) granted a "temporary type approval" for the FSD version 2026.3.6 on April 10, based on UN Regulation No. 171 (Driver Control Assistance Systems), with a validity of at least 36 months, recognizing it as an SAE Level 2 driving assistance system. This approval was based on 1.6 million kilometers of European road test data, 4,500 closed-course tests, and 13,000 in-vehicle assessments, meeting over 400 specific compliance requirements. Subsequently, Lithuania and Estonia approved it in May, and Denmark and Belgium followed in June, with Slovenia becoming the sixth country to do so.
According to Dutch regulatory guidelines, the FSD supervised version is not an autonomous driving system; it requires the driver to remain attentive and legally responsible for the vehicle's operation: An in-vehicle eye-tracking device continuously monitors the driver's attention state, triggering visual, auditory, and vibration alerts if distracted. If the driver continues to be unresponsive, the system will force the vehicle to slow down and enter a controlled parking state. Before first use, the owner must also complete mandatory tutorials and tests.
From the EU's approval mechanism perspective, individual member states currently approve "temporary type approvals". Major markets like Germany, France, and Italy have previously preferred to wait for a unified EU decision rather than pursue individual fast-track approvals. According to Article 39 of the EU Regulation No. 2018/858 and related mechanisms, achieving a unified release across the EU requires the "Motor Vehicle Technical Committee" (TCMV) to vote through a "double majority"—at least 15 of the 27 member states, representing 65% of the EU population, must vote in favor. The next realistic voting window is expected this fall (October or December); if the vote fails, the temporary approvals already issued will expire in six months. France is currently conducting road tests with two test vehicles but has not made a formal approval decision; Spain has about 30 Tesla vehicles participating in a testing project with its traffic management department (DGT), accumulating about 80,000 kilometers of test mileage since November 2025.
Commercially, Tesla offers two models for the FSD supervised version in the Dutch market: a monthly subscription of €99 or a one-time purchase option for €7,500. Owners of vehicles with "Enhanced Autopilot" can enjoy a discounted subscription of €49 per month. This move comes as Tesla faces pressure in the European market—Tesla's sales in Europe fell by 27.8% year-on-year in 2025, and BYD has surpassed Tesla in several European markets this year. The accelerated approval of the FSD supervised version is seen as a key measure for Tesla to differentiate its software capabilities to offset declining hardware sales pressure.
From an industry mechanism perspective, Tesla's strategy of "breaking through country by country, leading by example" essentially exploits the EU regulations that allow member states to recognize each other's "temporary type approvals", bypassing the lengthy wait for a unified EU vote, and aims to commercialize in more countries as early as possible to seize regulatory and user perception advantages. For Tesla, FSD subscription revenue is a high-margin software service income that can partially offset the pressure on hardware gross margins due to declining vehicle sales and price wars, making it a crucial support point in Tesla's current financial narrative of "software-defined vehicles". However, the potential reversal risk of the EU's unified vote, which could lead to "expiration in six months", means that Tesla's commercialization process in multiple countries is still fundamentally built on an unfinalized regulatory foundation.
Additional information: It should be noted that although FSD has been approved in six countries in Europe, it is still classified as a "Level 2" driving assistance system under current classifications, meaning that legally, the driver must be responsible for the vehicle's operation at all times and it is not truly autonomous driving. Countries such as the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, and Ireland have also been reported to be advancing their own independent approval or recognition processes, with specific timelines yet to be announced.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Tesla's approval strategy in Europe continues its historical behavior of "rapid rollout followed by regulatory scrutiny" seen in the U.S. market—FSD has faced multiple investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the U.S. due to discrepancies between its name and actual capabilities. However, the UN vehicle type approval system in Europe is much stricter than in the U.S., forcing Tesla to adopt a "first secure the Netherlands, then let smaller, faster-decision countries like Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, and Slovenia follow suit" snowball strategy, similar to its historical pattern of first obtaining precedents in more regulatory-friendly jurisdictions before gradually pushing into more cautious large markets like Germany and France.
From a funding perspective, the pricing of the FSD subscription at €99 per month (or a one-time payment of €7,500) in the Netherlands is an extension of Tesla's consistent strategy in Europe: converting its existing fleet into assets that continuously generate software revenue rather than relying solely on new car sales—this is particularly crucial given Tesla's 27.8% year-on-year decline in European sales in 2025 and BYD's surpassing Tesla in several European markets. Once the underlying AI computing power and software stack are established, the marginal gross margin of subscription revenue approaches 100%, meaning that each newly approved country can directly bring in high-margin revenue without needing to sell a new car—this is the core motivation for Tesla to prefer a country-by-country approach rather than waiting for the EU's unified approval process to complete.
In the industry context, this is highly similar to the historical strategies of platform companies like Uber and Airbnb, which first establish precedents and user recognition in regulatory-friendly smaller markets before tackling traditionally cautious jurisdictions like Germany and France. It also resembles some pharmaceutical companies that first obtain approval records in faster-approving smaller markets before facing large-scale reviews by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Meanwhile, Tesla is also competing with Mercedes (whose L3 "Drive Pilot" has been approved in Germany and California under different classifications) and Chinese automakers' evolving intelligent driving systems for a leading position in the early-stage autonomous driving software market in Europe.
Structurally, this is essentially a regulatory arbitrage during the early diffusion stage of "technological substitution": EU regulations allow member states to issue temporary type approvals for emerging technologies based on Article 39 of Regulation No. 2018/858, and other member states can choose to directly recognize a country's issued certification without waiting for the Motor Vehicle Technical Committee to complete the full voting process—Tesla is systematically leveraging this "certification chain reaction" path (Netherlands first certifies → more small countries follow suit → cumulative number of approved countries increases) to gradually create a fait accompli: once six member states legally operate this system, the political and practical costs of a final EU vote against it will also rise. This is consistent with the recurring mechanisms seen in this round of reporting—whether it is limiting immigration by fees rather than quotas, tokenizing securities to bypass registration requirements, or cryptocurrency exchanges navigating regulatory gray areas, the speed of expansion for emerging capabilities or business models always outpaces the rule-making processes that should unify constraints on them, with the first movers establishing market positions based on this time differential.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
Where unified approval is too slow, first gain consensus in smaller countries.
Software subscriptions are the first backup to activate when hardware sales slow down.
After six countries approve, the cost of the seventh saying no increases.