Tesla has renamed its "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" system to "Tesla Assisted Driving" on its European websites, a concession that won it the backing of Germany's transport ministry for a European Union-wide approval vote now expected in December. Elon Musk thanked Germany on X with a two-word post — "Danke schön" — after the deal was reported.
Germany's Federal Transport Minister, Steffen Bilger, told Reuters that the old "Full Self-Driving" name was "somewhat misleading," since the system assists drivers but is not fully autonomous. "My goal is for Tesla drivers to be able to enjoy the benefits of 'assisted driving' throughout the EU without delay," Bilger said.
The rename resolves one dispute but not the central one. Germany is pressing Tesla to limit how far the system can exceed posted speed limits — a feature known as Speed Offset — to no more than 10%. The version Dutch regulators approved earlier this year can push a vehicle's speed up to 50% above the posted limit in some conditions, according to Not a Tesla App's reporting on the dispute. Tesla has not confirmed whether it has actually capped the feature at 10% in the version it is now presenting to European regulators.
Germany joins the Netherlands and Belgium in supporting EU-wide approval, and eight countries — the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Czechia and Croatia — have already approved the renamed system for their own roads. Germany itself has not yet done so. Sweden and France remain opposed over speeding concerns; Sweden has urged the EU outright to reject the system unless Speed Offset is removed, and the European Transport Safety Council has raised similar objections.
The EU-wide vote, which needs support from at least 15 member states to pass, had been expected this month but has slipped to December at the earliest while additional countries run their own tests. Tesla is also reportedly preparing to relaunch the system under the Tesla Assisted Driving name in China, based on recent updates to the company's Chinese owner's manuals. For now, the rename buys Tesla political cover in Berlin without resolving the safety objections that other capitals say still stand in the way of a bloc-wide rollout.
