Statens vegvesen approves public-road testing

Norway's regulator Statens vegvesen (the Public Roads Administration) authorised Tesla to test FSD (Supervised) on public roads. The authorisation takes the form of a two-year dispensation and permits operation of the system on vehicles that have already passed European type approval, with modified steering and speed control, under the oversight of Tesla-trained drivers.

This is specifically a testing regime, not a full approval for broad use by owners. Alongside its interest in the technology, Scandinavian regulators have flagged a number of questions. Statens vegvesen says it is receiving many inquiries from the public and intends to ask Tesla for specifics: how typical Nordic conditions have been taken into account, what is being done to prevent confusion with a fully self-driving vehicle, how incident-reporting requirements will be handled, as well as questions about the system's robustness against manipulation and other security aspects.

Similar reservations have been raised by regulators in Sweden, Finland and Denmark: they are concerned about the system's behaviour with speed limits, on icy and snow-covered roads, and about whether the branding accurately reflects the system's real capabilities.

For owners in Norway, this means standard, wide-scale availability of FSD (Supervised) is not yet on the table. The testing authorisation is an important step, but a final decision on broader deployment depends on Tesla's answers to the regulator's questions and on a separate national assessment of winter conditions.