France is ready to let true self-driving cars on its roads by 2027 — but not before Tesla proves its Autopilot can obey the law. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot has refused to approve FSD in its current form, citing two reasons in plain terms: the system speeds, and it loses its grip on driver attention exactly where that matters most — in the city.
The minister's example reads like a ready-made speeding ticket: 70 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. That's not a glitch — it's the system's own logic, a 40% overshoot whenever surrounding traffic moves that fast. And it doesn't stop there: according to Tabarot, in some cases the deviation reaches 50% — with no command from the driver at all. French authorities have yet to publish a technical report detailing the conditions of these tests.
The second blow lands on driver attention. Lane changes, intersections, roundabouts — precisely where a mistake costs the most, the system's grip loosens. And that's where the name itself turns into a paradox. "Full Self-Driving" sounds like a promise of autonomy, but in Europe it's formally FSD Supervised — a Level 2 driver-assistance system. The wheel and pedals may behave like a robot's, but under the law, the human stays fully responsible — and can't afford to look away for a second.
This scrutiny didn't come out of nowhere. On April 10, 2026, the Dutch regulator RDW became the first in Europe to approve FSD Supervised, after more than a year and a half of testing. Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark and Belgium followed the same path. France could have simply joined the list. It didn't — and instead of taking someone else's verdict at face value, it started running its own numbers.
This isn't the final word. The ministry is continuing talks with Tesla, the Netherlands and other countries, and this autumn it will bring France's autonomous-driving industry together at the table. From here, FSD's fate in France won't hinge on promised timelines — it will come down to two measurable things: whether the system stops speeding, and whether it can actually prove it keeps drivers' attention.
