Tesla Receives Croatian Approval for Supervised Full Self-Driving System

Croatia — Tesla has secured approval to deploy its supervised Full Self-Driving system in Croatia, making the country the latest European market to authorize the technology.

Tesla said Tuesday that Croatian authorities had approved the system, with a nationwide rollout expected to start soon.

The decision marks another development in Tesla’s push to expand its driver-assistance technology throughout Europe.

The Netherlands’ vehicle regulator, RDW, approved the system in April. Belgium and several other countries later granted approval, while neighboring Slovenia authorized the technology earlier in September.

RDW has also proposed extending approval for the software throughout the European Union. That effort has encountered opposition from a safety group and several EU member states, with particular concerns surrounding the system’s ability to exceed posted speed limits.

The question has become a significant point of debate in Tesla’s plans to expand the technology across Europe.

Tesla has said that bringing Full Self-Driving to more European markets is important to its efforts to boost sales and recover market share as competition from Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturers intensifies.

An EU-wide decision on the technology had previously been pushed back from October. The next apparent opportunity for a decision is not expected until at least December.

Approval across the European Union would require a qualified majority of 15 of the bloc’s 27 member states, representing 65% of the EU population.

Croatia’s approval gives Tesla another national market even as the broader European regulatory process remains unresolved.

The company continues to pursue authorization for the supervised system on a country-by-country basis while European regulators consider rules governing more advanced driver-assistance technology.

For Tesla, expanding the system across Europe forms part of a wider effort to put its software in the hands of more drivers while competing in an increasingly crowded electric-vehicle market.

The Croatian decision does not amount to approval throughout the European Union. Any wider deployment will still depend on the EU regulatory process and the required backing from member states.