Self-driving rules split Europe and the US as cities fight back

Two decisions in the same week, in two different systems, describe the current state of self-driving regulation. In Europe, the timetable slipped again. In Minneapolis, the local rulebook passed and then ran into a mayoral veto threat.

The EU vote on Tesla's Full Self-Driving approval is not expected before December, according to Electrek and electrive.com, which both reported the delay on 25 and 28 September. That is the second slip in a month for a bloc-wide decision that national regulators have already made for themselves, one country at a time.

Croatia approved supervised Full Self-Driving in late September, with Reuters and Croatia Week among the outlets carrying the decision on 29 September. The approval followed weeks in which the Croatian regulator had said it would wait for the EU process, according to eletric-vehicles.com. Safety group Euro NCAP's concerns over a speed offset feature were raised with the EU in a Reuters report on 29 September, the same day Croatia moved.

Sixteen countries, no single answer

By the end of September, Tesla FSD (Supervised) was live in 16 countries across four continents, according to a BASENOR count. The company has also said it is in talks with Irish authorities, reported by Not a Tesla App on 26 September, and by teslahubs.com a day later. Croatia was described by several outlets as the sixth European approval. No single European regulator signed off on that number.

The practical effect is a patchwork. A driver can cross a border and find the same software legal on one side and unapproved on the other. The EU's own process, which would replace that with one decision, now sits at least two months out.

"EU Delays Vote on Tesla's Full Self-Driving Approval" ran one 22 September headline, and the delay has since been extended.

Across the Atlantic the argument is about cities, not countries. On 1 October the Minneapolis City Council approved a robotaxi regulation, according to kare11.com and MPR News. The mayor's office said he will veto it. The two reports agree on the vote and the veto threat, which is unusual in a week when most autonomous vehicle news came from company announcements rather than public bodies.

Waymo, Uber and Lyft have been expanding robotaxi real estate, Bisnow reported on 28 September, and Alphabet plans a Waymo launch in Singapore for 2028, per Yahoo Finance. Bolt has said it wants 25,000 Lucid EVs in robotaxi service soon and 100,000 by 2035, Fleet Europe reported on 2 October. None of that expansion answers the Minneapolis question: who writes the rules for a vehicle with no driver.

Buses and trucks move first

Regulation is not only a brake. MAN's autonomous Lion's City E electric bus is already being tested on Munich's streets under the MINGA project and could carry passengers from November, according to Sustainable Bus and Magyarbusz. Aurora Innovation is targeting $5bn in revenue as its driverless truck fleet scales, MarketBeat reported on 29 September.

The pattern across these cases is that freight and fixed-route transit are clearing regulatory hurdles faster than passenger robotaxis in dense cities. A bus on a known route is a smaller problem to certify than a car picking up strangers on any street.

Australia is a further test. Robotaxis could reach the country by 2028, but hurdles remain, IT Brief Australia reported on 1 October. Macau has kept the door open to driverless cars while listing conditions that still have to be met, Macau Business reported on 29 September.

None of these markets will wait for Brussels. The EU's December vote, whenever it lands, will set a baseline that several member states have already gone around.