By Inti Landauro
BRUSSELS, May 5 (Reuters) – Tesla‘s aim to roll out its supervised “full self-driving” software in Europe got a boost from Belgium on Tuesday, where the Flanders region said it was looking into whether it can quickly adopt it following approval in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands’ regulator provisionally approved the use of the software on Dutch roads last month, making it the first country in the EU to allow the software, which can control a car but requires drivers to pay attention.
Annick De Ridder, the transport minister for Flanders, the mainly Dutch-speaking half of Belgium which borders the Netherlands, said in a post on X that she had asked Tesla to provide documents so as to possibly follow suit in her region.
Her team would make clear by the end of the week whether a fast-track approval is possible, De Ridder added.
“Because you shouldn’t slow down innovation, but make it possible in a thoughtful and safe way. This way, we keep Flanders at the forefront as a forward-thinking region,” she said in her post.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has projected confidence that the EU will soon green-light its FSD, though several regulators in countries such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway have shown skepticism toward the technology and its stated safety benefits.
A spokesperson for Belgium’s central transport ministry said the issue was up to regions and not a matter for the central government.
Tesla has also filed a request to Belgium’s other main region, mainly French-speaking Wallonia, its ministry said. A spokesperson for Brussels, the capital, which is a separate third region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Marie Mannes and Chris KirkhamEditing by Philip Blenkinsop and Peter Graff)