European Authorities Push Back On Tesla FSD
Full self driving. What does that even mean? Let’s look at it from the point of view of a person who is about to buy a new car. The salesperson says, “This car comes with full self driving.” Would that customer be wrong to assume the car could drive itself like a horizontal elevator? Get in, select a destination, then sit back, eat a sandwich, check your email, or DM with with peeps until you arrive.
Elon Musk and Tesla have a different interpretation. They claim full self driving means “you, the driver, must pay strict attention to the road ahead, keep your hands on the wheel, and be actively engaged in the driving process and ready to take control of the car as required.” Does that sound like full self driving to you?
France Could Fine Tesla €50,000 A Day
In France, the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes, otherwise known as the DGCCRF, this week came to the conclusion that Tesla has engaged in “deceptive commercial practices” that are harmful to consumers. The investigation began in 2023 as the result of multiple complaints submitted by French drivers to a government website.
According to France24, the DGCCRF identified several violations, particularly “deceptive commercial practices regarding the fully autonomous driving capabilities of Tesla vehicles, the availability of certain options and vehicle trade-in offers.” While Tesla has been a leader in promoting advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), European regulators are tightening scrutiny on how such features are marketed — especially where claims of “full autonomy” may mislead consumers, it said in a report.
Tesla now has four months to rectify the issues found to be harming French customers. If it does not, the company will incur a daily penalty of €50,000. The other findings primarily involve the marketing and sale of Teslas in France. The primary finding of the agency (translated) is as follows:
“In the event of failure to comply within this period, given the particular seriousness of the practice, the injunction aimed at ceasing the deceptive commercial practice regarding the fully autonomous driving capability option of certain TESLA vehicles is accompanied by a penalty payment of 50,000 euros per day of delay.”
Tesla Buffeted In Europe
Electrive reports the action by the DGCCRF comes at a time when Tesla is experiencing a number of headwinds in the European market that have led to a steep decline in sales. Sales in France last month struggled to exceed 700 units. Part of that is due to increased competition from European automakers, including Renault, and Chinese imports. But Tesla has not helped itself by failing to update is model lineup significantly.
And then there are the drug-induced antics of Elon Musk, who has been alienating many potential customers with his supercharged embrace of neo-Nazi themes. Spending $300 million or so to get the dumbest person ever to occupy the Oval Office elected hasn’t helped either.
Inside EVs has a little more context on this story. In addition to the Full Self Driving finding, the French government leveled five additional complaints against the company based upon its business practices. Those additional findings involve the company’s contractual and monetary practices concerning the issuance of sales contracts without delivery details and being slow to make refunds to those who elected not to complete their purchase or lease of a Tesla vehicle, based on the consumer complaints to the DGCCRF.
Disgruntled Tesla drivers in France have also sued Tesla to force it to take back cars they have leased from the company, not because they have any actual defects but because of Musk’s political activities have turned the cars into “strong political symbols” and “veritable extreme-right ‘totems.'”
Frustration With European Bureaucrats
True to his pugnacious “in your face” nature, Elon Musk is pressuring European regulators to approve Full Self Driving. At issue is whether drivers are allowed to remove their hands from the wheel. If they can’t, the EU considers a system to be only Level 2. If they can, such as with Mercedes vehicles equipped with the Drive Plus system, they are considered Level 3 and may be marketed as autonomous cars. Even at that, the only place where Mercedes drivers may legally remove their hands from the wheel is on certain sections of the Autobahn.
When Mercedes announced that system, it stressed the importance of “redundant system architecture for safety.” What that means is that steering, braking, and other important functions must have a double circuit so that if one fails, the other can continue driving the car safely. That sort of redundancy is standard in aircraft, and Mercedes is saying it is vital in self-driving cars as well. It also claims that lidar technology was essential to any Level 3 ADAS system, something Musk stubbornly refuses to consider.
Musk personally resents officious officials, and so he is trying to work the refs by releasing videos showing a Tesla taking on the notoriously frantic traffic around the Ard de Triomphe in Paris and in Rome, which is often regarded as the world’s most dangerous city to drive in.
Obtaining regulatory approval in the EU is usually more difficult that in the US, where Musk can wield his considerable political clout to force regulators to bend to his will. According to Inside EVs, officials in the EU want to know who is responsible if a self-driving car crashes, an issue that needs more clarification both in Europe and elsewhere.
Musk is clearly frustrated by the slow pace in Europe. It goes against his “move fast and break things” nature. Recently, he blamed things on “Dutch authorities” and the need for “the EU to approve.” How can these ignorant bureaucrats not see that Full Sell Driving is a blessing for European drivers when Tesla’s own internal data shows FSD cuts the risk of injury fourfold? That internal data also claims FSD is 10 times less likely to get into a crash than a human driver.
Austin Update
And yet, the actual real-world experience in Austin this week suggests Tesla FSD is not yet ready for prime time, as it allowed a robotaxi to enter a lane reserved for oncoming traffic and let passengers off in the middle of a busy street with multiple lanes. The Independent on June 26 ran a story that collected some of the glitches, foibles, and foul-ups committed by those robotaxis in just the first few days. Granted, some of them are silly or little more than niggles, but some suggest the advanced FSD algorithm installed in those robotaxis is just not up to the task, no matter what Musk says.
We have seen in comments to prior stories here at CleanTechncia that readers are passionate about the Robotaxi experiment in Austin. There were reports of one car experiencing several instances of phantom braking, but the person who took the video is a well known Tesla detractor and no one else has reported similar concerns, so we are not going to pay much attention to that claim.
Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst who is bullish on Tesla’s future, brushed off the mistakes as growing pains. “Any issues they encounter will be fixed,” he told the Associated Press, insisting that the Austin test run was a “huge success.” Of course, Ives has been pumping the stock for years, so he may also not be the most reliable observer.
In a statement, NHTSA said it was “aware of the referenced incidents and is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information. Following an assessment of those reports and other relevant information, NHTSA will take any necessary actions to protect road safety.”
Let’s leave the discussion there for the moment, pending new information. Here at CleanTechnica world headquarters, we tend to agree with Mercedes — redundancy and lidar are two essential components of any system that purports to be Full Self Driving. Make of that what you will.
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