Tesla has started calling its Full Self-Driving software “Tesla Assisted Driving” on its European websites. Reuters reported on October 9 that the Slovakia, Germany, Spain and Netherlands pages now redirect to an Assisted Driving page. Engadget says Tesla agreed to the rename after discussions with regulators.
Why the name changed
Reuters says Germany’s transport ministry said on Tuesday that the old name was misleading. It adds that Italian authorities wrote internally that the name could lead users to believe the car drives itself without supervision. Germany’s transport minister, Steffen Bilger, said on October 6 that Tesla had offered to use the new name, according to Reuters via The Star. We covered the German backing in Germany Backs Tesla Driver-Assist Software for EU Approval.
What did not change
The U.S. site still sells “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” for $99 a month, Reuters says. Reuters also reports that eight EU countries have approved the system and that Slovakia was expected to be the ninth within days. The Dutch regulator’s role is in our report Reuters Says Tesla Pushed Dutch Regulator on Self-Driving Review.
What is not known
The reports we read include no statement from Tesla and no exact date for the switch. The outlets also differ on which country pages changed: Engadget lists Germany, Spain and France, while Reuters lists Slovakia, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. Whether the rename changes anything beyond the label is not reported.
Our take: a name change is not a software change. The more useful signal is that regulators in Europe pushed on the word “self-driving” and Tesla moved, while the U.S. label stays. Watch the EU approval vote, which we have covered as slipping to December at the earliest.
