Finland's transport authority, Traficom, has recognized the provisional type approval granted by the Dutch RDW on Nov. 10, allowing Tesla to start offering its supervised driver-assist system to Finnish customers, Not a Tesla App reported. Finland is now the 11th European Union country and the 19th country worldwide to approve the system. Traficom said it moved faster than the EU-wide process for two reasons: changes Tesla has already made, which the RDW approved earlier this month, and the approaching winter, so owners can get used to the system before the toughest conditions arrive. Those changes include cutting the maximum Speed Offset from plus 50% to plus 10%, resetting it to 0% every time the car starts, and renaming Full Self-Driving to Tesla Assisted Driving.
"The name change helps users and the market understand the true nature of the system," Traficom senior specialist Jukka Juhola said. The new name is also used in Tesla's Finnish- and Swedish-language materials. Juhola noted that the system was assessed with winter in mind, but that its operation "may be subject to various limitations if the cameras become covered in snow, slush or other dirt." Drivers remain fully responsible while using it, including for following the speed limit. "It is always the driver who receives the fine for speeding," he said.
Most of the recent European approvals have come by recognizing the Dutch framework. Finland's decision came about two weeks after Latvia became the 10th EU country to approve the system. Like other European markets, Finland should get Tesla's European build of FSD v14 on Hardware 4 vehicles, the report said, in the coming days or weeks. Traficom expects a final decision on EU-wide approval this winter, with a vote expected in December. Tesla needs at least 15 member states representing 65% of the EU's population. After the Technical Committee for Motor Vehicles approves it, the approval would take about three weeks to apply across the bloc. Finland's national approval does not commit it to voting in favor, Traficom said. Germany has said it will support the system in the vote now that Tesla has renamed it and capped the Speed Offset, and Italy has said it backs EU-wide approval too.
The verified news is a national recognition of the Dutch type approval, a 19th-country count, and the Speed Offset and naming changes already required. It is not unsupervised driving, and it is not yet an EU-wide green light. If all 11 already-approving EU countries join Germany and Italy, Tesla would still need two more member states to reach the 15-country, 65% population threshold. Traficom also said more changes are expected before EU-wide approval, which "will help drivers remain alert while driving." Finnish owners with Hardware 4 vehicles should start getting Tesla Assisted Driving in the coming days or weeks, the report said.