The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) reportedly urged the European Commission and EU member states to reject two speed functions in Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised): “speed offset” and “contextual max speed.” The request was reported on September 29, 2026, ahead of scheduled European discussions about the system’s approval.
What the two speed functions do
The reported description of “speed offset” allows a driver to set a persistent offset of up to 50% above a speed limit detected by the system. In that description, a detected limit of 50 km/h becomes a 75 km/h ceiling; a 30 km/h limit becomes 45 km/h.
“Contextual max speed” is described separately: it may use the speed of surrounding traffic to determine the vehicle’s maximum. The ETSC’s reported concern is that using traffic speed as a reference could encourage speeding.
The regulation argument concerns “speed offset”
The ETSC’s reported legal argument is that “speed offset” conflicts with UN Regulation No. 171. The regulation says a system must not let a driver set a default offset above the road speed limit determined by the system.
That legal objection concerns “speed offset.” The ETSC’s separate objection to “contextual max speed” focuses on the risk of using surrounding traffic as a speed reference.
The Netherlands’ approval and the EU timetable
The Netherlands’ vehicle authority, RDW, reportedly granted Tesla provisional national type approval on April 10, 2026, under the Article 39 procedure in EU Regulation 2018/858. That national approval was not EU-wide authorization; the described European process required a favorable vote by the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV).
The TCMV was scheduled to continue discussing the Dutch application on October 6, 2026, with no vote expected that day. December was described as the earliest possible point for a decision.
