Tesla can start offering its supervised driver-assistance software in Finland immediately, the country’s transport regulator said on Wednesday, making it the 11th European Union member to allow the system before a bloc-wide vote.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, Traficom, said it recognized on November 10 the provisional type-approval that the Dutch vehicle authority granted for the system, now called Tesla Assisted Driving.
“This means that Tesla can immediately start offering the system to its customers in Finland,” Traficom said. The system “can now be used on Finnish roads.”
“Now approved in Finland,” Tesla’s Europe, Middle East and Africa account wrote on X. “Rollout begins soon.”
Ahead of Brussels
“Finland is moving slightly faster than the EU-level process in introducing the system,” Traficom said.
The agency gave two reasons. One is the set of changes Tesla has made to the software. The other is the season.
Recognizing the approval now “will give Finnish Tesla users an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the system before the most challenging winter conditions arrive,” it said.
“The system’s design and approval assessment have taken winter conditions into account, but its operation may be subject to various limitations if the cameras become covered in snow, slush or other dirt, or if traffic conditions become more challenging than usual,” said Jukka Juhola, a Senior Specialist at Traficom.
Juhola said the agency sees progress in driver assistance as a necessary step toward automated transport. Such systems “have significant potential to reduce road accidents caused by human error” when used correctly and with appropriate technical limits, he said.
Eleven Countries, One Approval
The Netherlands is the only EU country to have approved the system through its own process. Its vehicle authority, the RDW, issued a provisional type-approval on April 10 under an EU rule that allows exemptions for new technology.
That approval is valid only in the Netherlands. Other member states can recognize it for their own roads while the EU process continues, and ten have now done so.
Lithuania and Estonia followed in May, Denmark and Belgium in June, and Slovenia, Czechia and Croatia in September. Slovakia recognized it on October 16 and Latvia on October 26.
Finland is the second Nordic country on the list after Denmark. Sweden told the EU committee handling the file in April to vote against the system unless Tesla removed a function that lets it exceed speed limits.
EU Decision
EU-wide approval requires a vote in the European Commission’s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles. A qualified majority is needed, meaning at least 15 of the 27 member states representing at least 65% of the bloc’s population.
“The final EU-wide approval of the system is expected to be decided during the coming winter, as Tesla has been willing to make changes to the system that various Member States have requested and justified,” Traficom said.
Traficom had said in June that the vote was expected in October. Germany’s Transport Ministry has said a vote is planned for December. The committee has discussed the Dutch request three times without voting, most recently on October 6.
After a successful vote, it takes about three weeks for the approval to take effect across the EU, according to Traficom.
Finland has not said how it will vote. National recognition “does not bind Finland in the EU-level vote,” the agency said, adding that the country “will continue to follow discussions between Member States on the system’s features when determining its position.”
None of the EU’s four most populous members, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, has recognized the Dutch approval, although Italy said last month it would back it at EU level.
FSD Changes
Tesla sells the software elsewhere as Full Self-Driving (Supervised). In Europe it has been renamed.
“References to self-driving have now been removed from the name, and the system is called Tesla Assisted Driving,” Traficom said. The name is also used in Finnish and Swedish marketing and user materials.
“The name change helps users and the market understand the true nature of the system,” Juhola said. He said it also leaves room for “genuinely self-driving cars, where responsibility for driving shifts away from the driver.”
The speed settings have changed as well. Drivers “can no longer encourage the system to continuously maintain an unnecessarily high speed above the speed limit (50 per cent),” Traficom said.
Any setting that allows speeding now resets to zero deviation each time the vehicle is restarted, and drivers get clearer information about the speed the system has selected.
“These changes ensure that drivers are aware of the decisions the car makes on their behalf and the settings that are currently active,” Juhola said.
Traficom did not state the new ceiling. The RDW said on November 3 that the margin had been cut to 10% from 50%.
When Traficom said in June that it was assessing the Dutch approval, it named the 50% margin as a concern, noting that speeding is common in Finland.
More changes are on the way. “Further changes to the system are expected before its EU-wide approval,” Traficom said. “These will not significantly affect how the system is used but will help drivers remain alert while driving.”
‘The Driver Is Still Driving’
Traficom stressed that the software is a driver-assistance system and that legal responsibility does not move to the car.
“The driver is still driving the car even if they are not physically touching its controls,” Juhola said. “They must therefore know how to use the system and remain appropriately alert while performing the driving task.”
Drivers must be ready to steer, brake or accelerate before the system asks them to, the agency said. Juhola gave examples of when hands should be on the wheel, including “a puddle of unknown depth, an icy road or section of road, thick snow or slush, strong crosswinds.”
“The system cannot eliminate the time it takes for the driver to place their hands on the steering wheel,” he said.
“Drivers must still be aware of the speed limit and comply with it,” Juhola said. “It is always the driver who receives the fine for speeding.”
Who Can Use It
Activating the system does not require a modification inspection unless the car has been altered in ways that affect it, such as unusual tire sizes or a lowered suspension, Traficom said.
The agency did not say how many cars are eligible. In June, it put the number of newest-generation Teslas covered by the Dutch approval in Finland at about 6,500, or roughly 0.24% of the country’s 2.7 million passenger cars. The RDW has said its latest update applies to cars with hardware version 4.0 (HW4) or later.
In other European markets, Tesla sells the software as a subscription at €99 ($110) a month.
Tesla said on September 1, when five EU countries allowed the software, that it was used by more than 70,000 customers there. “FSD Supervised is already saving lives where it’s approved – yet in much of Europe, that safety benefit remains locked behind bureaucracy,” the company wrote on X at the time, as it published a safety dashboard it said had been shared with all member states in April.
Tesla registered 69 new vehicles in Finland in October, 62 Model 3s and seven Model Ys, according to data compiled by EU-EVs. That followed 798 in September.
From January to October, Tesla registered 3,282 cars in Finland, the same data show. The Model Y accounted for 2,373 of them.
