Tesla FSD Is Illegal in France. Why Europe Rejected Tesla FSD, and Only the Third Most Important Auto Story.
Three European Auto Decisions That Tell You Everything About Where the Industry Is Headed
The week that ended July 31, 2026, produced three separate decisions by three different organizations in three different countries, all of them aimed at the same underlying question: how much of the old automotive world survives what is happening right now? The answer, depending on which decision you look at, is complicated.
France told Tesla that its autonomous driving system is not legal in its current form. BMW confirmed that its combustion-powered 3 Series is getting a major generational update. To stay relevant in Europe, where it’s experiencing difficulties in the automotive market, Ford has announced the allocation of a section of its Spanish plant to a Chinese manufacturer. None of these stories sit comfortably next to the others. Together, they are probably the most honest picture available of where European mobility actually stands.
France and Europe Tell Tesla FSD It Needs to Try Harder
On July 22, French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot released a video statement making clear that France would not authorize Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Supervised system in its current form on French roads. He framed it carefully: this was not a rejection of autonomous driving technology, and it was not a final answer. It was a refusal to approve the system as it currently stands.
Two specific objections drove the decision.
The first concerns speed. Tabarot stated that FSD can exceed posted speed limits by up to 50 percent without any driver command, adjusting its speed to match surrounding traffic flow. On a road marked 50 km/h, if surrounding drivers are traveling at 70 km/h, the system may independently choose to match them, prioritizing traffic harmonization over the posted limit. In France, that is a legal problem regardless of the practical logic behind it.
