Tesla has quietly rebranded its controversial “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) software package to “Assisted Driving” across several European markets as the automaker ramps up efforts to secure regulatory approval from European safety authorities.
EAs reported, EV-maker Tesla has started calling its “Full Self-Driving” feature “Tesla Assisted Driving” on its European websites, dropping a name ‌regulators have said was misleading, as CEO Elon Musk pushes for EU-wide approval for the software.
The rebrand comes after Germany said on Tuesday Tesla had offered to switch to the new name.
Musk has described the self-driving technology as key to the company’s future growth.
Tesla’s FSD page for Slovakia now redirects to a “Tesla Assisted Driving” page, as do pages in other European countries such as Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. The US site still refers to it as “Full Self-Driving (Supervised).”
A Reuters report published this week detailed how Tesla mounted a campaign to win approval for FSD in Europe, including encouraging owners and supporters to lobby national regulators for faster approvals.
Several regulators have said the old name is misleading because the system requires constant supervision and drivers remain legally responsible.
According to documents, a Norwegian Tesla owner in November also asked the Norwegian Public Roads Administration whether Tesla’s changes to how it described FSD addressed concerns about the name.
Eight EU countries already allow the system, with Slovakia expecting to become the ninth within days.
An EU-wide vote has been pushed from October to at least December, with countries like France conducting additional testing.
By shifting the nomenclature to “Assisted Driving”, aligning more closely with standard Level 2 driver-assistance classifications, Tesla aims to clear the compliance hurdles needed to legally roll out its advanced driver-assistance features on European roads.
