Slovakia’s Ministry of Transport has officially recognized the Dutch preliminary type approval of Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system, allowing drivers to use the software on Slovak roads.
Tesla has recently offered to rename the system “Tesla Assisted Driving” after the German ministry called the current name “somewhat misleading,” and its European website pages now use the new name.
The Slovakian ministry said in a statement on Friday that it had officially recognized the preliminary type approval of the system.
“Slovakia is thus one of the few European countries that have permitted its use,” the ministry said.
The move makes Slovakia the ninth European Union country to allow the driver-assistance software, all of them on the basis of a single approval issued in the Netherlands.
What the Ministry Said
The approval was issued in April by the Dutch vehicle authority RDW, and other member states can recognize it on their territory, “which Slovakia also did today,” the ministry said.
“I’m glad that when it comes to modern technologies in transport, Slovakia is not lagging behind,” Transport Minister Jozef Ráž said in the statement.
“Road safety is extremely important to us, which is why we are happy to support all innovations that increase it,” he added.
The ministry described FSD (Supervised) as a software package for advanced driver assistance that helps the cars on which it is installed drive in cities and on highways.
It can accelerate, brake, steer, change lanes, cross intersections and respond to traffic signs and traffic lights on its own, using cameras and neural networks for partially automated driving, the ministry said.
‘The Driver Is Still Fully Responsible’
Ráž stressed that the system does not make cars driverless. “It is not a fully autonomous system, so you shouldn’t imagine that the driver’s seat in cars will be left empty,” he said.
“The driver is still fully responsible for driving. That is why the system constantly monitors their attention, and if it detects that they are not paying attention to driving, it warns them and switches off if necessary,” he added.
The RDW classifies FSD (Supervised) as an SAE Level 2 system, under which the driver must be able to take over at any time.
A Promise Kept Within Days
The decision came nine days after Ráž said in a LinkedIn video that his ministry would send a recognition letter to the Netherlands within days.
“Once this letter is delivered, the FSD system will be available for use here as well,” he said at the time.
A petition from Tesla Owners Slovakia asking the ministry to recognize the Dutch approval had gathered 601 signatures by then.
In Europe, Tesla sells the software only as a subscription, at €99 ($111) a month.
The Ninth Country
The Netherlands remains the only EU country to have approved the system through its own process, with the RDW issuing its type approval on April 10 and Tesla beginning its rollout to Dutch customers the next day.
The RDW granted the approval under Article 39 of EU Regulation 2018/858, which allows exemptions for new technology not yet covered by harmonized rules.
That approval is valid only in the Netherlands, and every other country on the list has chosen to recognize it for its own roads.
Lithuania followed on May 20 and Estonia on May 29, both without testing of their own, while Denmark recognized it on June 9 and Belgium on June 10, after testing in Flanders.
Tesla announced approvals in Slovenia on September 7, with the infrastructure ministry confirming the next day, and in Czechia on September 21 and Croatia on September 29, after Czech and Croatian authorities had earlier said they would wait for an EU decision.
The first eight countries to recognize it accounted for less than 13% of the EU’s population.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the bloc’s four most populous countries, have not recognized the Dutch approval.
An EU-Wide Decision Still Pending
An EU-wide approval requires a qualified majority in the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, with at least 15 of 27 member states representing at least 65% of the bloc’s population.
The committee’s October 6 meeting was listed only as a continuation of discussions, the third session on the file without a vote after meetings on May 5 and June 30, and Germany’s Transport Ministry has said a vote is planned for December.
Germany had raised the system’s ability to exceed speed limits with Tesla in September.
The ministry said on October 6 that it had reached an understanding with Tesla under which the system may exceed the speed limit “by a maximum of 10%” and the driver “remains 100 percent responsible.”
Transport Minister Steffen Bilger has said he will push for EU-wide approval and floated a national solution if that fails.
