Elon Musk Sighs At EU-Wide FSD Approval Delay — TSLA Stock Slips

• Tesla had previously hinted at hopes for a vote in October. 
• The next scheduled session is in December, which is now the earliest likely date for a decision.
• Even without an EU-wide decision, seven member states have recognized the Dutch permit and allowed the software on their roads, including Lithuania, Estonia and Denmark.

A bloc-wide decision on allowing Tesla’s supervised Full Self-Driving software across the European Union has been pushed back by at least two months, to December.

An official draft agenda for an October 6 meeting of the EU Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles now lists only further talks, not a vote. The next scheduled session is in December, which is now the earliest likely date for a decision. Tesla had previously hinted at hopes for a vote in October.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the delay in a post on X with a brief, “Sigh.”

TSLA stock is down 1.4% at the time of writing, after opening nearly 2% higher.

TSLA FSD: What The Vote Is On

FSD Supervised is an advanced driver-assistance system; it does not make the vehicle wholly autonomous and requires the driver to take over as required.

Under EU vehicle-approval law, a national regulator can grant a temporary permit for new technology if it can show a comparable level of safety. The Netherlands did that in April through its road authority, the RDW, and then asked Brussels to extend that permit across the EU. That request is what the committee is considering. Approval would need a qualified majority: at least 15 of 27 member states, representing 65% of the EU population.

Even without an EU-wide decision, seven member states have recognized the Dutch permit and allowed the software on their roads, including Lithuania, Estonia and Denmark. However, the countries cumulatively cover only about 12% of the EU’s population in the absence of approvals in larger markets including Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

The committee has already discussed the Dutch request twice. The 6 October agenda gives the item 25 minutes under the heading “continuation of discussions.” While Tesla had pointed to that date as a possible vote, the published agenda does not include one.

National approvals can continue in the meantime. An EU-wide yes would replace the current patchwork with a single permit.

How Did TSLA Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TSLA stock rose from ‘bearish’ to ‘bullish’ over the past 24 hours, while message volume was ‘low.’

TSLA stock is down 17% year-to-date.

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