Lithuania has officially approved Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system, becoming the second European country after the Netherlands to permit the driver-assistance software on public roads.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Transport and Communications, together with the Transport Safety Administration (LTSA), announced on Wednesday that they would recognise the temporary EU-type approval issued by the Dutch vehicle authority RDW last month.
Hours later, Tesla confirmed the rollout had begun.
“FSD Supervised now rolling out to Teslas in Lithuania,” the company wrote on X.
Transport Minister Juras Taminskas said the technology represents a step toward safer and more convenient driving, particularly during long trips or monotonous highway conditions.
The system does not constitute fully autonomous driving as drivers must continuously monitor traffic and be prepared to take control at any moment, the minister said.
Lithuania’s Decision
Lithuania’s decision was made under Regulation (EU) 2018/858, which allows EU member states to recognise temporary type approvals issued by other countries for new technologies without conducting independent testing.
The country chose to rely on the evaluation carried out by the RDW, which approved FSD (Supervised) on April 10 after an 18-month review — which included 1.6 million kilometres of on-road testing across Europe, over 4,500 closed-track scenarios, and more than 13,000 customer ride-alongs.
The RDW approved FSD under UN Regulation 171, which governs Driver Control Assistance Systems — a category of Level 2 vehicle automation.
It also granted an Article 39 exemption under EU Regulation 2018/858, a provision designed for technologies that do not fit neatly within existing rules.
Tesla had been building toward a Lithuanian presence.
In late April, the company posted job listings for FSD Vehicle Operators in Vilnius, alongside similar roles in Vienna and Voluntari, Romania.
Those positions involve driving Tesla-owned vehicles equipped with pre-release software to collect localised driving data and identify edge cases specific to each market.
The LTSA said it will monitor how the system performs within Lithuania’s local infrastructure.
Authorities expect the gradual deployment of such technologies to help reduce accidents caused by human error, particularly fatigue-related incidents on highways.
FSD (Supervised) is priced at €99 per month in the Netherlands, with a reduced rate of €49 per month for owners who previously purchased Enhanced Autopilot.
Tesla ended one-time FSD purchases across most European markets on May 21, shifting to a subscription-only model.
Pricing details specific to Lithuania were not immediately available.
European FSD Rollout
Lithuania has roughly 2.8 million inhabitants.
However, its decision to move ahead of Germany, France, and Italy — all of which Tesla initially expected to act within four to eight weeks of the Dutch approval — adds to the pressure on the European Commission’s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles to advance an EU-wide vote.
The TCMV held its 117th meeting on May 5, during which the RDW presented its Article 39 file in a dedicated one-hour session. No vote was held.
The next scheduled sessions are June 30 and October.
A formal qualified-majority vote requires at least 15 of the 27 member states representing 65% of the bloc’s population.
Several member states have raised concerns, including Sweden’s Transport Agency, which questioned the system’s allowance for exceeding posted speed limits.
Norway’s Public Roads Administration said it would evaluate how Nordic winter conditions were accounted for.
France has stated it will not authorize FSD until the Commission’s review concludes, and Italy’s Transport Ministry has signalled it will await an EU-level decision.
Belgium’s Flanders region was one of the first to signal intent of early approval.
The local agency completed an initial screening and moved to a limited additional testing phase; however, it has not yet granted formal approval.
Tesla‘s internal target of EU-wide approval in the second or third quarter of 2026 now rests on the late June committee outcome.
FSD (Supervised) is currently available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the Netherlands, and now Lithuania.
