Tesla renames ‘Full Self-Driving’ to ‘Assisted Driving’ in Europe as it chases clearance for software

A view of the newly launched Tesla's first centre in India, at Orchid Business Park in Gurugram, Wednesday. PTI

EV-maker Tesla has started calling its “Full Self-Driving” feature “Tesla Assisted Driving” on its European websites, dropping a name regulators have said was misleading, as CEO Elon Musk pushes for EU-wide approval for the software.

The rebrand comes after Germany said on Tuesday Tesla had offered to switch ⁠to ​the new name. Musk has described the self-driving technology as key to the company’s future growth.

Tesla’s FSD page for Slovakia now redirects to a “Tesla Assisted Driving” page, as do pages in other European countries such as Germany, ​Spain ​and the Netherlands. The US site still refers ⁠to it as “Full Self-Driving (Supervised).”

A Reuters report published this week detailed how Tesla mounted a campaign to win approval ‌for FSD in Europe, including encouraging owners and supporters to lobby national regulators for faster approvals.

In September, a Norwegian Tesla owner asked the Norwegian Public Roads Administration whether Tesla’s changes to how it described FSD addressed concerns about the name, according to documents Reuters obtained through freedom-of-information requests.

“Please do not simply say again that ‘we are waiting for ⁠the EU’ without explaining ⁠what Tesla or Norway must deliver in the meantime,” the owner said.

Several regulators have said the old ⁠name is misleading because ‌the system requires constant supervision and drivers remain legally ​responsible.

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In Sweden, consumer protection authorities had earlier ‌asked the Swedish Transport Agency to assess whether the marketing of FSD could give buyers the false impression the system ‌was capable of fully autonomous ​driving.

In Italy, ​authorities had ​said in internal government correspondence that the name “Full Self-Driving”, together with Tesla’s promotional material, “could lead users to believe ​that the vehicle is equipped with unsupervised automatic driving functions ⁠attributable to higher levels of automation, particularly SAE Level 3”, in communication seen by Reuters through freedom-of-information requests.

Eight EU countries already allow the system, ‌with Slovakia expecting ⁠to become the ninth within days.

An EU-wide vote has been pushed from October to at least December, with ​countries like France conducting additional testing.