In a bid to win European approval for its“Fully autonomous driving”(FSD) system, tesla, the American electric-car giant, submitted its own“Misleading” safety data to regulators in Sweden and the Netherlands. Tesla’s safety claims were exaggerated by a number of invalid comparisons in its statistics, the paper said.
In an e-mail to Swedish regulators, Tesla provided slides that contained exaggerated information, such as the mileage of Tesla cars using FSD before a crash, Reuters reported, more than seven times higher than the average human driver in the US; FSD could save 32,000 lives and prevent 1.9 m injuries.
Independent traffic safety researchers say the figures are misleading marketing. U.S. electric vehicle industry media Electrek reported on the percentage of airbag deployment accidents in Tesla vehicles that will be equipped with FSD, compared to the accident rate for all vehicles in the U.S. , which includes a large number of minor accidents. In addition, Tesla’s comparison of its vehicles to those in the U.S. , where the average vehicle is about 12 years old, skews the results.
Tesla vehicles currently running the FSD system are roughly at level 2(L2) , or partially automated, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s classification criteria for autonomous driving, this means that the driver is always fully responsible for safe driving and must always be ready to take over. If the system is to be legalised on an eu-wide basis, it needs the approval of 55 per cent of the representatives of member states (who together account for 65 per cent of the EU’s population) , who can then ratify the FSD individually at home.
Currently, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium and Denmark have approved supervisory versions of Tesla FSD. Securing FSD approval in the European market is a key move by Tesla to boost sales in the region. Tesla lost nearly half of its European market share in 2025 due to increased competition, particularly from Chinese brands, a lack of new models and a reaction to chief executive Musk’s political stance.