Italy Backs EU-Wide Tesla FSD Approval After Salvini Speaks With Elon Musk

Italy is backing Tesla’s push for EU-wide approval of its supervised driving software. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini announced his support after speaking with Elon Musk, as Tesla continues collecting national approvals across Europe.

What Salvini Said on X

In his October 29 post on X, Salvini described a productive conversation with Musk and said Italy supports a swift European approval of Tesla Assisted Driving, Tesla’s new name for FSD in Europe. Salvini described Italy’s interest in supporting innovation and road safety.

Salvini is supporting an EU-wide approval, but his statement does not appear to indicate that Italy will look to get FSD approval at the national level.

The Path to European Approval

The Dutch vehicle authority RDW issued an initial provisional approval in April. Other EU members can recognize that authorization nationally while the EU-wide process continues.

Italy’s backing follows Germany’s support for European approval, subject to changes involving the system’s name, which Tesla has already completed and speed offsets. A vote is expected no earlier than December. EU approval requires at least 15 member states representing at least 65% of the EU population.

Where FSD Is Approved

Latvia became the 10th EU country to approve FSD on October 26. Our table below shows FSD’s approval across 18 markets, including the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which came later.

You can see how the approval process is accelerating with five countries approving FSD in just the last couple of months.

HW4 Expected

Like all approved regions outside of North America, with the exception of South Korea, we expect the EU to approve FSD only for HW4 vehicles. While FSD v14 Lite is a big improvement for the previous version, there is still a huge gap between what HW4 is capable of and HW3.

With FSD v14 Lite being the end of the road for HW3, we don’t see the approval process including these vehicles and instead they’ll have to wait for Tesla’s planned hardware upgrade.