- FSD exceeded the limit in 16 of 29 tested Brussels 30 km/h segments.
- The Tesla often showed drivers a 50 km/h limit after detecting a 30 km/h sign.
- The group wants regulators to revisit FSD’s approvals before a possible EU vote.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system has a speed-limit problem, according to a Belgian road-safety group. During testing around Brussels, the supervised system sometimes spotted a 30 km/h (19 mph) sign and then told the driver the limit was 50 km/h (31 mph). It also exceeded the limit on more than half the low-speed road segments the group examined. That is an uncomfortable finding for a system seeking approval across the European Union.
A nonprofit organization, called Johanna.be, tested a Model 3 over three days in July, covering roughly 400 km (249 miles). Its 36-page report focuses on streets where pedestrians and cyclists are particularly exposed. The car ran FSD version 14.2.2.6 in Standard mode, with its speed offset set to zero and its contextual maximum-speed setting switched off. Those are key details since Tesla allows drivers to configure FSD in various ways.
Read: Tesla Driver Who Blamed FSD For Fatal Home Crash Charged With Manslaughter
In Brussels, FSD exceeded the 30 km/h limit on 16 of 29 tested road segments. Its highest speed on each of those segments averaged 44 km/h (27 mph). That figure isn’t an average cruising speed, either. The report says the car displayed an incorrect, higher speed limit to its supervising driver on roughly 90 percent of the tested segments.
In some cases, its screen briefly showed that it had observed the 30 km/h sign before reverting to a displayed limit of 50 km/h. The group also tested 12 residential “home zones” with a 20 km/h (12 mph) limit. FSD exceeded it in five. On Belgian cycle streets, where drivers cannot overtake cyclists, the system repeatedly tried to pass them. The supervising driver stopped several of those attempts.
The report gives Tesla credit where it is due. It says FSD generally yielded to pedestrians and cyclists and behaved courteously around them. Still, a courteous car that gives its driver the wrong speed limit is still a problem. Importantly, the test involved just one car, one software version, and selected Belgian roads, so it can’t really establish how often every FSD-equipped Tesla behaves this way. It does, however, document specific failures for regulators to examine.
Dutch regulator RDW approved FSD for use in the Netherlands in April, and Belgium subsequently authorized it. Johanna.be has asked both authorities to revisit the approvals ahead of a possible October 6 vote on use across the EU. To that end, RDW told Reuters it had received the report and would assess it in context. Tesla did not respond to the news agency’s request for comment. Drivers remain responsible for the car, but that responsibility gets harder to exercise when the car itself insists the limit is higher than it is.
Photos: Tesla
