Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) may be limited to newly manufactured vehicles in Sweden, with the country’s transport regulator signalling that cars already on the road may not be covered by the EU approval process now under way.
The position, if adopted, would prevent the software from being pushed to thousands of existing owners via an over-the-air update — as it has been done in the Netherlands since last weekend.
E-mail screenshots shared by multiple users on X show that the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen) is still assessing how the software would apply to vehicles already in use in the country.
In replies to owners asking about the timeline, the agency said Sweden will follow the European Union’s decision on approval — joining other member states that have taken the same wait-and-see stance after the RDW approved the software in the Netherlands last Friday.
In an e-mail reply shared by X user “asoderqvist,” the transport authority said that, while “the provisional type-approval applies to new vehicles that are put into service in the Netherlands,” other states in the EU “may choose to accept this approval, which in that case would also cover new vehicles in those countries.”
The Article 39 mechanism, set out in EU Regulation 2018/858, allows member states to provisionally approve innovative technologies that fall outside current vehicle rules, pending a bloc-wide decision.
The following step is for the Netherlands “to pursue the matter further in order to convert the provisional approval into a full EU type-approval,” a decision made through a vote at the EU-level.
Italy took a similar position on Tuesday, with its Transport Ministry telling a Tesla owner that no decision will be taken until the EU-level discussions conclude.
The Minister alluded to a joint analysis between the European Commission and member states that is scheduled for May.
In a separate e-mail, shared by X user ‘LinkN01’, a representative of the Swedish Transport Agency confirmed that the process will “take place in a committee led by the EU Commission, where Sweden and other EU countries are represented.”
Both are referring to the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, which will meet on May 5 and June 30.
The FSD approval will be discussed in the May meeting, as the RDW has already notified the Commission that it will present Tesla‘s Article 39 file.
However, the Swedish representative flagged that he has “no knowledge of when a decision can be made in the committee.”
Swedish Approval
According to one of the e-mails shared, the Swedish Transport Agency has not received “any request from Tesla or the Dutch type approval authority regarding the national approval that NL has granted Tesla.”
Despite that, the regulator is “following the development and participating in the continued work within the EU,” it added in the other correspondence.
The agency pointed out that it generally views “technological development in driver assistance systems positively, with traffic safety as a central starting point.”
They revealed that analysis is “ongoing from a Swedish perspective.”
While it noted it is too early to comment on timelines, the agency also revealed that vehicles already under use in Sweden might not see the software approved for its use.
“The question of national handling of vehicles that have already been put into service is also being analyzed, as these are not covered by the ongoing EU process,” they noted.
Different Interpretations
Clarifying its position, the Swedish regulator said the Article 39 decision at the EU level “gives Tesla the opportunity to produce new vehicles with this technology.”
It suggests that, once approval is granted, the software can be enabled on newly manufactured vehicles across all EU countries.
“At the EU level and in the committee, rules for the approval of new vehicles, not used vehicles, are handled,” the agency’s representative added. “That is, updating existing vehicles is something that falls under national regulations in each EU country.”
The agency appears to imply that it is up to national authorities to decide whether the software can be pushed to vehicles registered before the decision.
The Swedish interpretation appears to diverge from the position taken by other countries and from how vehicle software typically works, given that FSD is delivered over-the-air (OTA).
In the Netherlands, FSD 14 was made available to all eligible vehicles — provided they are equipped with Tesla‘s Hardware 4 (HW4), as the software does not run on the earlier HW3.
As of Wednesday, the company has begun offering free trials of the software to Dutch users who have not subscribed or purchased it.
Tesla has also been running the software on a fleet of previously registered vehicles in Europe, both for internal testing over the past year and for the customer ride-alongs offered with safety drivers behind the wheel.
FSD in Sweden
Tesla‘s path to testing FSD in Sweden has been uneven.
In June 2025, the Swedish Traffic Office blocked the company from running FSD trials in Stockholm, citing risks “for both infrastructure and third parties” given that the proposed test covered the entire city.
The company secured its first major breakthrough in October 2025, when it won approval to test FSD on all Swedish state highways and expressways.
It was, however, limited to three internal vehicles, with urban testing still requiring sign-off from individual municipalities.
In January 2026, the Swedish Transport Agency granted Tesla its first urban testing permit in Sweden, covering the municipality of Nacka, after earlier denials in Stockholm and Uppsala.
Tesla followed up last February with a request for additional local testing in Jönköping.
Tesla in Sweden
Tesla‘s Swedish sales have unfolded against the backdrop of the longest industrial action in modern Swedish history.
The IF Metall strike has been ongoing since October 2023, with the union demanding that Tesla sign collective bargaining agreements covering wages, working hours, and pensions — standard practice for automakers operating in the country.
Negotiations involving IF Metall, Tesla, and Sweden’s National Mediation Office remain deadlocked.
The dispute weighed heavily on 2025 results, with the company registering only 7,252 vehicles in Sweden last year — roughly a third of the 21,894 units sold in 2024.
Sales have since shown signs of recovery.
After a sequential rise through January and February, Tesla registered 1,784 vehicles in March 2026 — its strongest month in 15 months and nearly doubling from a year before.
First-quarter registrations reached 2,849 units, a 33.3% increase year over year and the company’s best quarter since late 2024.
The Model Y was the top-selling model across all powertrains in March, with 1,382 units.
Despite the blockade — which has also halted grid connections for Tesla‘s charging stations for nearly two years — the company has worked around the disruption, renewing its vehicle storage contract at the Trelleborg port, opening new Superchargers in Malmö and Södertälje, and continuing construction on a new service center.
