By Toby Sterling and Akash Sriram
April 13 (Reuters) – Dutch vehicle authority RDW has notified the European Commission of its plan to seek European Union-wide approval for Tesla’s full self-driving software system, the regulator’s general manager of type approvals told Reuters on Monday.
The system can steer, brake and accelerate under the supervision of a human without their hands on the steering wheel, but Bernd van Nieuwenhoven emphasised that despite its name, it is driver assistance software rather than a full self-driving car.
Van Nieuwenhoven said he was confident it could be used safely on all roads in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, where electric cars share narrow streets with motorized vehicles, bikes and e-bikes.
“If it is good enough for the Netherlands, it is good enough for Europe,” Van Nieuwenhoven said in an interview following the announcement on Friday nL1N40T0XG that it had been approved in the Netherlands, a European first.
Tesla shares rose 0.5% to $350.52 in the U.S. on Monday, marginally outpacing the Nasdaq.
The company is counting on self-driving software to boost vehicle sales, which have slowed nL6N3X10WN in Europe due to its aging EV lineup and CEO Elon Musk’s conservative political rhetoric nL4N3TX0LA that has alienated some consumers.
OTHER COUNTRIES MAY FOLLOW
A spokesperson for the Commission said that the Netherlands had informed it that it will present the case to the relevant technical committee in May.
If the evidence from test results is satisfactory and if there is support from a majority of member states, the next step would be to prepare an implementing act authorising the Netherlands to grant EU type-approval allowing an EU-wide roll-out, they added.
Meanwhile, individual countries may decide on their own account to allow the technology, using the Dutch approval as a reference point.
“You can imagine that there are certainly bilateral conversations” with regulators in other EU countries, Van Nieuwenhoven said, with the RDW prepared to answer questions about its technical conclusions.
EUROPEAN VERSION OF SOFTWARE DIFFERENT TO US MODEL
The software is already available as a subscription for U.S. drivers, where Tesla is facing consumer lawsuits nL1N3UB0FD and federal investigations nL6N3YH0S4 after crashes nL4N4070ZH and reports of traffic violations.
Van Nieuwenhoven said the Dutch-European version of the full self-driving software will not be exactly comparable with the U.S. version due to the differing regulatory process.
Differences include stricter monitoring of whether drivers are paying attention to the road, and a need for any significant software update to the system to be checked with the RDW ahead of time.
Tesla is the most popular maker of electric cars in the Netherlands, with around 100,000 Model 3 and Model Ys combined on its roads that would be eligible for FSD software.
Customer Kees Roelandschap, a Tesla enthusiast, said he had purchased a subscription to the service for 99 euros ($115) per month and installed it by Saturday night.
“The driver monitoring is strict, but supple,” he said. He cited picking up a phone while driving or wearing a hat with a visor that blocks a driver’s vision as examples of actions that would trigger warnings and eventually turn off the system.
If correctly used, it can conduct an entire trip including parking without interference, he said.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; Additional reporting by Alexander Chituc in Brussel; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Jan Harvey)
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