American electric car manufacturer Tesla's "Fully Self-Driving (FSD, Regulated Version)" driving assistance software was officially launched in Lithuania recently, becoming the second European country after the Netherlands to approve its use, marking that the car company is accelerating its push for autonomous driving and artificial intelligence deployment in Europe.
The implementation of FSD in Europe is regarded as an important strategic part of Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk. It is not only related to the narrative of the company's transformation from a traditional car company to an "artificial intelligence and robotics company", but also related to the realization of Musk's huge personal compensation plan. The report pointed out that Musk’s compensation plan totaling up to US$1 trillion is tied to multiple product goals, including achieving “10 million active FSD subscriptions” by 2035.
Judging from current data, this goal is still far away. Tesla revealed during its first-quarter earnings call in April this year that there are currently about 1.3 million users paying to subscribe to FSD worldwide. FSD (supervised version) was first launched as a beta version at the end of 2020. Subsequently, it continued to fix bugs and improve reliability and performance through multiple software updates. It can now take over most driving operations in scenarios such as steering, lane changing, and parking, but it still requires the driver to maintain attention at all times and be ready to take over.
In terms of pricing model, Tesla once allowed car owners to buy out the software at one time, but Musk announced in January this year that it would no longer provide a buyout option. FSD is only open to the public through monthly subscriptions. The current subscription price is US$99 per month. While the business model is changing, Tesla is also trying to expand subscription scale by continuously expanding the available areas of FSD.
However, FSD's entry into Europe is not rapid. As regulatory agencies in various countries remain highly cautious about autonomous driving systems, Europe is generally more cautious in the deployment of such technologies than the United States. Up to now, FSD has only been officially released in Europe by the Netherlands and Lithuania. If the Dutch regulatory agency RDW, which is responsible for the first batch of approvals, successfully promotes the unified acceptance of FSD at the EU level, this process is expected to be significantly accelerated.
Before unified rules at the EU level are fully implemented, other member states can also decide whether to open FSD in their own countries based on the Dutch certification results. There are signs that many countries are already "waiting in line." The Greek Ministry of Transport said on Wednesday that a bill to be submitted will pave the way for FSD to be approved locally; Belgium is expected to follow the same authorization process as the Netherlands to approve the use of the software in the country. The official Tesla Europe, Middle East and Africa account also posted on social platforms that FSD (regulated version) has begun to be pushed to Lithuanian car owners, and declared that it will "make European roads safer country by country."
Outside of Europe, Tesla has provided FSD services in Australia, Canada, China, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United States, building a multi-continental self-driving subscriber base. In the "AI and Robots" strategic picture drawn by Musk, FSD (regulated version), which is open to mass consumers, is currently the largest and most widely implemented product.
In contrast, Tesla's more radical "FSD (unregulated version)" is not yet open to ordinary car owners. This version is designed to be able to complete all driving tasks completely autonomously without the need for human driver monitoring and control. It is currently only in small-scale trial operation on about 50 Tesla self-driving taxis in Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas, USA.
Another major blockbuster project promoted by Musk, the humanoid robot "Optimus" (Optimus Prime), has not yet achieved mass production, and is still some way away from being sold to ordinary users. In contrast, the FSD (regulated version), which is already legally on the road in many countries and uses a subscription model to continuously expand its user base, is becoming one of the key pivots for Tesla to shift from an "electric vehicle company" to an "AI and robotics platform." Whether it can expand rapidly in Europe will largely test the quality of this strategic story.