News Spotlights Stocks

Dutch vehicle authority RDW says no Tesla recall planned in Europe

post-img

(Reuters) – The Dutch vehicle authority RDW said on Friday it does not currently plan a Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) recall in Europe following a major U.S. recall this week of the carmakers’ models due to concerns about their Autopilot driver assistance systems.

The Netherlands’ RDW oversees safety approval for Teslas in Europe.

The agency cited differences between Autopilot functions that are available on the European and U.S. markets and said it is in touch with Tesla.

The U.S. recall, Tesla’s largest to date, was prompted by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration findings that drivers do not always pay enough attention to the road when the system’s automatic steering functions are turned on, possibly increasing the chance of crashes.

Teslas are classified in both the United States and Europe as having level 2 or “partial driving automation” on the industry’s five-point scale, with level 5 being fully self-driving.

However, a spokesperson for RDW said there are differences in what specific features are allowed at level 2 in the United States and in Europe, which is following U.N. standards.

Tesla’s steering functions in Europe are tested against the U.N., not U.S. rules, they said.

Other “differences are, for example, in how the ‘drivers monitoring’ is done and the warning given to the driver when the system is abused,” the spokesperson said.

In the United States, Tesla has said it plans to update software with additional controls and alerts to make sure drivers pay attention while steering-assist functions are being used.

Related Post

[mstock id="67"]