Tesla's Full Self-Driving Software Clears Major Hurdle with Danish Approval

Denmark has become the fourth European country to approve Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software for public use, following in the footsteps of the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Estonia. This development marks a significant milestone in the expansion of FSD across Europe, as more countries begin to clear the system for widespread adoption.

The approval was granted after a thorough review by Denmark's Road Traffic Authority, which accepted the provisional type approval originally issued by the Dutch vehicle authority RDW back in April. The Danish agency confirmed that it agrees with the assessment that FSD will contribute positively to road safety by assisting drivers while driving.

FSD is currently restricted to Hardware 4 (HW4/AI4) vehicles in Denmark and other active European markets, but Tesla plans to introduce a new variant called FSD v14 Lite later this summer. This distilled version of the software will be available internationally and is designed specifically for older Hardware 3 cars.

The regulatory domino effect for FSD approval across Europe is gaining momentum, with several countries moving quickly to clear the system. Belgium is currently fast-tracking its local review process and is expected to be among the next wave of approvals. Sweden has also expanded public FSD testing on its roads, while Latvia has made similar progress in regulatory terms.

Tesla's AI chief Ashok Elluswamy recently shared a map of countries pending FSD approval, indicating that the entire European Union is tracking toward an official rollout. The company's advanced driver assistance system has now secured approvals in 12 global territories, covering major markets such as the US, Canada, China, and Australia.

The safety data released by Tesla shows that FSD (Supervised) recorded a significant reduction in collisions compared to manual driving on Dutch roads. In the last two months, FSD Supervised was over three times safer than manual driving, with 3.5 times fewer overall collisions and zero total collisions across 16.6 million kilometers driven.

The system's performance metrics also reveal that FSD (Supervised) exhibited a smoother driving profile compared to human operation, logging significantly fewer automatic emergency braking events, harsh acceleration scenarios, and hard swerves.