, after a call with Musk. A vote could come in December.){kind=link}
Italy wants Tesla’s supervised self-driving software on European roads, and soon. Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said Thursday that he had a “very positive and constructive conversation” with Elon Musk and that Italy “supports a swift EU approval of Tesla Assisted Driving,” the European name for FSD (Supervised).
Salvini posted it on X on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 4:21 AM ET / 1:21 AM PT (5:21 PM JST). The full line reads: “Italy is looking with great interest at the opportunities offered by assisted driving technologies, with a focus on innovation and road safety, and supports a swift EU approval of Tesla Assisted Driving.”
That’s a real shift. Italy had been one of the big holdouts. It never recognized the Dutch approval on its own, and Italian outlet Motorzoom listed it alongside France, Germany and Spain as the countries whose objections pushed the EU vote off the October agenda. Corriere della Sera described the file as long stuck on safety checks. Now Rome is asking Brussels to hurry up.
Why one country matters this much
Europe’s path for Tesla runs through a committee most drivers have never heard of: the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, or TCMV. The Dutch regulator RDW approved FSD (Supervised) nationally in April. Turning that into an EU-wide approval needs a qualified majority, at least 15 of the 27 member states representing at least 65% of the EU’s population.
Ten countries have already said yes at home: the Netherlands, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia and Latvia, which became number 10 on Monday (we covered Latvia’s approval here and Slovakia’s just before it). Add up their populations using Eurostat figures and you get roughly 64 million people, about 14% of the EU. Lots of flags, not many voters.
Italy alone is about 59 million people, roughly 13% of the bloc. Germany, the biggest of all, has also said it backs a timely EU-wide decision. Its transport ministry made that case on Oct. 6, according to Numerama and the Not an FSD Tracker country list. Put the ten approvers together with Italy and Germany and you’re near 46% of the population by our math. Big jump. Still short of 65%, and still short of 15 countries, so France and Spain remain the swing votes. France’s transport minister has asked for technical changes and road tests before he backs EU approval.
The next chance for a vote is the TCMV’s December meeting. Numerama puts it on Dec. 1.
Not “autonomous,” and that’s the point
Corriere was careful to spell out what Italy is endorsing. Tesla Assisted Driving doesn’t make the car autonomous. The driver has to stay alert and ready to take over, which is how Tesla sells it in the U.S. as FSD (Supervised). That framing has helped in country after country, and some approvals came with conditions. Latvia signed off only after the software was adjusted to drive slower and watch the driver more closely, Numerama reports.
Tesla’s pitch to regulators leans on its own numbers. Its latest safety report shows one major collision every 6 million miles with FSD (Supervised) engaged in North America. European regulators run their own tests, but a big-country minister quoting “road safety” as a reason to approve is exactly what Tesla needed to hear.
Italian wire service LaPresse and HuffPost Italia both carried the statement within hours. Neither Salvini nor Tesla gave details of the call beyond the post.
Lester’s take
Every week Europe gets a little closer, and every week I refresh the news from Tokyo like a kid checking whether it snowed. Italy saying “hurry up” is huge. This is the country that gave us Rome traffic, so if regulators there think supervised FSD makes roads safer, I’d love to see it handle a Vespa swarm at a roundabout. I’ve paid for FSD on four Teslas and then moved somewhere I can’t use it, which makes me the world’s most patient beta tester. Europe, please vote yes in December. Japan, I see you reading this too.
Sources: Matteo Salvini on X, Corriere della Sera, LaPresse, HuffPost Italia, Numerama, Motorzoom, Not an FSD Tracker.
— Lester Miyashiro, EVX News
Featured image: Tesla store at Piazza Gae Aulenti in Milan, Italy. Photo: Moliva / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).