Tesla’s EU driving assistance vote possible in December at earliest

Tesla (TSLA) faces a longer wait for EU approval of its supervised driving assistance system: December is the earliest apparent voting opportunity, Reuters reported Friday. For owners in countries without approval, crossing into an approved country won’t enable the feature if their car is registered back home, Tesla says.

December is an earliest opportunity, not a promised clearance date. Tesla said on September 1 that a vote could potentially happen on October 6, but Reuters’ earlier reporting found that the October 6 committee agenda provided for further discussion of the Dutch approval request rather than a vote, with the next scheduled meeting in December. France is among the countries conducting additional testing; its transport minister previously identified speed limits and driver attention warnings as concerns, Reuters reported.

The distinction matters because national permission and approval across the EU are separate steps. Dutch regulator RDW granted permission in April and explained that extending it across the bloc requires a member state vote. Reuters reports that approval needs support from at least 15 countries representing 65% of the EU population, so permission in several individual countries doesn’t settle the wider decision.