Abstract:
A prominent safety group on Tuesday urged European Union member states to reject approval of U.S. automaker Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) system, citing concerns it could allow vehicles to exceed speed limits.
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) stated that Tesla's driver assistance system contains a "speed offset" function that can increase the maximum speed to 150% of the speed limit detected by the vehicle (that is, exceeding the speed limit by up to 50%).
The safety group said Tesla was not seeking an exemption from United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) regulations that would allow its FSD system to exceed established speed limits through some kind of compensation feature.
The issue has become one of the most controversial points in Tesla's promotion of FSD in Europe; the system is responsible for controlling the vehicle's speed and steering while requiring the driver to maintain attention.
Several countries, including Sweden, France and the Czech Republic, have expressed concerns that the system could exceed speed limits.
Dutch regulator RDW approved the system in April, with Belgium and a handful of other countries following suit. A vote on EU-wide approval of the system was due to take place in October but now looks unlikely to take place before December.
The Dutch approval granted exemptions to a series of rules set by a United Nations committee, but relevant safety organizations pointed out that it did not include exemptions for speed limit deviations.
European regulators should refuse to approve a "speed offset" feature and another that adjusts driving speed based on surrounding traffic conditions, the European Transport Safety Council said.
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