Will we soon have self-driving Teslas in Belgium? The American carmaker has already applied to the European Commission in March for approval of autonomous driving (Full Self Driving), and more specifically, supervised hands-off driving.
According to the Vers L’Avenir newspaper, Federal Minister of Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés), unlike his predecessor, is already in favor. Furthermore, Crucke wants Belgium to become a key player in the rollout of autonomous vehicles.
Article 39
Although the EU approval is not yet in place, several European websites of the EV manufacturer are already anticipating developments. Indeed, the Tesla sites, including the Belgian one, now feature a dedicated page entirely devoted to the autonomous driving system, Full Self-Driving.
And the company has played it smart. Tesla is taking advantage of Article 39 of the European regulation, which established a framework for a provisional type of approval for vehicles or systems, such as FSD, even if they do not formally meet current requirements yet.
Article 39 allows Tesla to apply to only one member state—the Netherlands, in this case—and, if accepted, it is automatically recognized in all other EU countries, unless an individual member state objects. In this way, the American manufacturer bypasses the traditional procedure, which is longer and more restrictive, for a new technology not yet covered by existing standards.
The Dutch Road Traffic Authority (RDW) is known for being more open to car innovation, which is precisely why Tesla has submitted a permit to test its autonomous driving system in the Netherlands. Piquant detail: Tesla’s driving assistance system, Autopilot, was already introduced to the European market in 2015, thanks to a loophole in the law, and the RDW played a role in this.
With a successful vote, approval could take effect from the end of September. The goal is to enable FSD in ‘Supervised’mode, initially still with a safety driver, but with features such as hands-free operation on highways, once the regulations come into effect.
‘Belgium must be a key player for self-driving cars’
According to Federal Mobility Minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés), as quoted in Vers L’Avenir, Tesla has indeed “informed him of its intention to apply for a derogation to obtain EU type-approval for a vehicle featuring new and innovative technology.” The minister’s administration has informed Tesla that the application must be submitted by the type-approval authority of a member state, which in Belgium is the responsibility of the Regions.
Crucke’s predecessor, Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo), was not in favor of self-driving cars at all. “Self-driving cars also get stuck in traffic jams and cause pollution. For long trips, it is better to encourage people to take the train than to sit in a self-driving car,” dixit Gilkinet.
But Crucke wants Belgium “to be a key player in the rollout of autonomous vehicles, with priority given to autonomous public, shared EVs. The issue of autonomous vehicles is a major challenge for tomorrow’s mobility.”
Flanders is also an advocate. The Flemish Autonomous Transport Taskforce has already outlined a ‘roadmap’ for this in 2024, and Flanders has made it clear in the past that it aims to have self-driving cars on Flemish roads by 2026. According to Crucke, discussions on this issue are already underway between the regional mobility administrations and the federal government.
Competitors also have European plans
In late June, Tesla, which is facing disappointing sales worldwide, launched its long-awaited robotic taxi service in Austin, the capital of Texas. Musk states that most new Tesla cars are already equipped with the necessary technology to drive fully autonomously.
He predicts that his company will eventually take more than 90% of the robot taxi market, with millions of self-driving cars on the road. And last week, a Tesla Model Y drove itself from the company’s Gigafactory in Austin to a customer’s doorstep with no one behind the wheel.
Still, there are doubts about Musk’s approach. This is because the autonomous cab service’s most significant competitor, Waymo, a sister company of Google, uses lidar technology, while Tesla relies solely on cameras. Lidar is a technology based on lasers to get a 3D image of the environment.
Waymo now operates more than 250,000 fully autonomous rides each month in multiple US cities, with a fleet of more than 1,500 vehicles. Cab app Uber stopped developing autonomous cabs in 2018 after an SUV killed a pedestrian in Arizona.
Still, in May, the company announced that it plans to offer self-driving cabs on its platform in Europe next year. The American cab service announced a partnership to develop the robotic cabs with China’s Momenta, a developer of autonomous driving technologies.
Waymo is also pursuing European expansion. Initial tests are already underway in Italy, and other countries are expected to follow, but a firm launch date has not been confirmed yet.
