France starts tests on Tesla's self-driving tech

By Gilles Guillaume

PARIS, Sept 3 (Reuters) - France has begun tests on two cars to better assess Tesla's FSD advanced driver assistance system, French Minister of Transport Philippe Tabarot said, in a move that could bring Europe a step closer to approval of Elon Musk's autonomous driving technology.

Netherlands road authority RDW approved Tesla's Full Self Driving system for use on Dutch roads on a provisional basis in April, prompting Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania to do the same in advance of a bloc-wide vote on the plan that could take place as early as next month. 

FSD is a driver assistance system that can accelerate, brake, and steer a car while its human driver remains ready to intervene, but does not effectuate a fully self-driving car. 

In July, Tabarot had said the safety trade-offs were not yet sufficient to justify authorisation, specifically in areas of speed limitation and driver attention warnings.

In a post on X late on Tuesday, the minister said he had had "a constructive exchange" with Musk regarding the technology after working closely with Tesla for several months on technical adaptations needed for France to support its approval.

"With the provision of two vehicles equipped with FSD by Tesla, we are now entering a new phase: that of on-road testing," he said.

TEST RESULTS EXPECTED MID TO LATE SEPTEMBER

A photo shared alongside the post showed a smiling Musk on a computer screen, in a video conference with Tabarot. The meeting had been initiated by Tesla, a transport ministry source said.

Tesla had no immediate comment. The company has previously said FSD approval is key to boosting sales in Europe.

Earlier this week, the electric vehicle maker said its FSD system recorded 4.1 times fewer collisions than manually driven Tesla cars in the five European countries where it is permitted, based on more than 100 million km (62 million miles) of driving data collected between April and August.

France wants to do its own tests to verify the data provided by the Netherlands and Tesla, and to test the system on French roads and urban areas that are designed differently to other countries, said a transport ministry source.

It is aiming to have test results in mid to late September, to be in a position to vote on a decision by the bloc in coming months. The EU's Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles is due to meet on October 6.

A vote could take place that day or at the group's next meeting in early December, the transport ministry source said, adding that he expected Tesla to be open to addressing their concerns, allowing the technology to be approved in Europe.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; additional reporting by Marie Mannes in Stockholm; Editing by Jan Harvey)