Berlin backs a Tesla system that can go 10% over the speed limit

Two paragraphs, two logics

On October 6, Germany's federal transport ministry put a short text online about Tesla's driver assistance system. It fits on one page, and it contains two statements that don't look at each other.

The first is about the name. The ministry writes that "FSD", short for Full Self-Driving, is "somewhat misleading" (our translation from the German-language text, as for every ministry quote below). This isn't a system that takes over the whole driving task, it says, but an assistance system that can support accelerating, braking and steering while the driver stays attentive at all times. Tesla, the text adds, has offered to rename it "Tesla Assisted Driving".

The second arrives two paragraphs further down. After talks in September, the ministry and Tesla agreed that the system may exceed the maximum permitted speed "slightly, by a maximum of ten percent". The stated reason is spelled out: minor speeding can, depending on the situation, make traffic flow "more evenly and smoothly".

So one document corrects a word because it promises too much, and accepts that the machine may run above what the road sign says. It's like fixing the label on a bottle in the name of accuracy, then agreeing it can hold a bit more than the label claims.

What's at stake in Brussels

For anyone who hasn't followed: Tesla's system, sold as FSD (Supervised), has no EU-wide approval. The Netherlands approved it in April at national level and asked the Commission to extend that authorisation across the Union, under an article of the EU vehicle type-approval regulation that allows exemptions for new technologies.

The call belongs to the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV), where member states sit. It takes at least fifteen of 27 countries, representing at least 65% of the EU population. By Electrek's count as of September 25, seven countries, the Netherlands included, had recognised the Dutch approval at home: Denmark, Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Czechia. Together they make up roughly 12% of the EU population.

That's where Germany changes the math. It's the most populous member state, and it isn't on that list. Transport minister Steffen Bilger now writes that he will "push" for a swift approval across Europe, and that Germany has signalled it will take part "constructively" in the speed approach within the procedure.

What the text actually says

On the name, the ministry's vocabulary is that of a deal, not a standoff. Bilger talks about an exchange with Tesla, a "common understanding" reached quickly and a "constructive agreement". The renaming is presented as an offer from Tesla. Nothing in the text supports saying Berlin imposed it.

On Tesla's side, the switch is already live on its French page, where the product is now called "Tesla Conduite Assistée". The same page says the option isn't available in France, and promises that once it's enabled, the car should be able to take you "almost anywhere under your active supervision" (our translation from the French-language page). The name took a step back. The promise didn't move much.

On speed, read carefully. The release doesn't change any speed limit and doesn't say a word about the traffic code. It describes what the equipment would be allowed to do, and the position Germany says it will take in Brussels. A type approval sets what a machine can do; a speed limit sets what a driver may do. The two aren't the same thing.

The text also doesn't say what the setting allowed until now. Specialist sites cite figures that don't agree with each other, and none comes from an official document. So there's no way to tell whether the 10% tightens or loosens what existed.

Sweden wrote the opposite

The objection isn't theoretical. In an April 30 letter to the TCMV, revealed by Reuters in June after a freedom-of-information request, the Swedish Transport Administration, Trafikverket, asked for the withdrawal of the function that lets a driver set a margin above the posted limit, which Tesla calls "Speed Offset".

Its argument, as Reuters quotes it: "allowing automated systems to systematically exceed legal speed limits risks undermining the legal framework", and the safety benefits automation is expected to bring. Failing a withdrawal, it recommended voting against.

That's not Sweden's official position yet. The agency that votes at the TCMV is Transportstyrelsen, the vehicle approval authority, and it told Reuters in June that it was still evaluating the question before settling on a stance. But the contrast is sharp: Sweden's transport administration asks to remove the margin, while Berlin says it will support capping it. Two ways of answering the same feature, and the European vote will eventually have to pick one.

"100 percent responsible"

One sentence near the end of the German release is probably the heaviest. Because this is a driver assistance system, responsibility for driving stays with the person at the wheel. The text insists: that person remains "100 percent responsible" for driving safely.

Put end to end, it makes for an odd balance. The carmaker gets a ministry willing to support a system that can run 10% over. The ministry walks away with a more honest name. And the driver would be left supervising a machine that's granted a margin the driver doesn't have, while the limit on the sign hasn't moved by a single kilometre per hour.

A 9% overshoot in a 50 km/h zone is still an overshoot. The release doesn't say how it's owned when the gap comes from the system. It only says who stays responsible.

Nothing is settled yet

The calendar cools things down. Tesla had pointed to a European vote on October 6, the very day of the German release. But according to Electrek, citing the agenda published by the Commission, the TCMV meeting only scheduled twenty-five minutes of "continuation of discussions" on the Dutch request, with no vote. The committee doesn't meet again before December, the earliest date for a decision.

Until then, Berlin's backing isn't an approval, and the 65% threshold is a high bar. France, Italy and Spain, according to electrive, hadn't recognised the Dutch approval at the end of September.

Ten days ago we covered how California signed thirteen AI laws in one day, and how its governor issued an order to defend a word. Berlin walks the opposite road. The ministry didn't have to fight over the name: Tesla was the one that offered to change it. The word was corrected to fit reality. The speed was discussed to fit the traffic.