New tests of Tesla's Full Self-Driving semi-autonomous driving system in real conditions in Belgium cast a serious shadow on the safety of the software and question its future approval on a large-scale European level. The study, conducted by a Belgian road safety organization using a Tesla Model 3 car, reveals worrying shortcomings in sign recognition and compliance with speed limits in urban environments.
During tests covering hundreds of kilometers of Brussels streets, researchers found that the technology systematically confused the bans, showing the driver a higher speed limit than the actual speed limit on the respective section. When driving through 30 km/h zones, the software registered the sign in several cases, but then automatically returned a 50 km/h indication on the central screen, which led to speeding in more than half of the tested sections. In addition, the autonomous driving also demonstrated risky behavior on specialized Belgian cycle paths, where the system repeatedly tried to overtake moving cyclists in violation of local rules, requiring the driver to intervene.
Although the tested software received high marks for its behavior towards pedestrians and its overall caution in other situations, these findings are causing acute tension among regulatory authorities. The report has been sent to the Dutch and Belgian authorities, which previously gave the green light for the system to be used locally, with the insistence that the permits be reviewed before a possible European-wide vote.