Tesla said on Tuesday that its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system has been approved in Croatia, 19 days after the Croatian body responsible for vehicle approvals said a decision was unlikely before an EU-level debate.
“FSD Supervised now approved in Croatia 🇭🇷 Rollout will begin soon,” Tesla’s Europe, Middle East and Africa account posted on X at 08:02 UTC, with a clip of a car driving on a highway.
The post was the only source at the time of writing.
Croatia’s State Office for Metrology (DZM), whose homologation service handles vehicle approvals, had published no statement on its website, and no Croatian outlet had confirmed the approval independently.
If confirmed, Croatia would become the eighth EU country to recognise the provisional approval that Dutch regulator RDW granted on April 10.
‘Very Likely’ No Decision
On September 10, the DZM told Croatian outlet Autonet that the Dutch approval “has not so far been accepted” in Croatia.
Neither the office nor the authorised technical service, the vehicle testing department of CVH, had received “the requested documentation or information providing convincing evidence on the key questions related to the safety of the FSD system,” it said.
It added that colleagues in other member states had also raised concerns.
“It is therefore very likely that, for now, no decision will be taken on accepting the national homologation before a discussion on the future of EU rules on this topic is held and credible evidence emerges on the key safety questions,” the office said.
Neither of those conditions has been publicly met since.
The office has not said whether Tesla has since supplied the documentation.
Same Pattern as Czechia
The sequence mirrors Tesla’s announcement on September 21 that Czechia had approved the system, three months after the Czech transport ministry said it would await the European assessment.
The Czech Ministry of Transport confirmed the recognition the same day.
“All the data and information now available have convinced us to follow the example of the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and other countries,” Minister Ivan Bednárik said.
In Slovenia, Tesla posted the approval on September 7 and the infrastructure ministry confirmed it the following day.
Eight Countries, Under 13%
Lithuania recognised the Dutch approval on May 20 and Estonia on May 29, both without their own testing.
Denmark followed on June 9, and Belgium on June 10 after 5,000 km of testing in Flanders.
Together with Slovenia and Czechia, the first seven account for less than 12% of the EU’s population.
Croatia, with about 3.9 million people, adds less than one percentage point.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain have approved nothing.
No Vote in October
An EU-wide authorisation requires a qualified majority in the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles: at least 15 of the 27 member states, representing at least 65% of the bloc’s population.
The Commission’s draft agenda for the committee’s October 6 meeting schedules only a “continuation of discussions” on the Dutch request, not a vote.
It will be the third session to take up the file without a decision.
The system’s ability to exceed speed limits has been the main objection.
Sweden told the committee in April that it would vote against the system unless Tesla removes its speed-offset function, Reuters reported.
French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said in July that the safety guarantees were “not yet sufficient” in the system’s current form.
If the Commission refuses authorisation, Article 39 of EU Regulation 2018/858 provides for the provisional approvals to be revoked six months after that decision.
Tesla sells FSD (Supervised) in Europe only by subscription since May 21.
