Slovakia Will Send Its FSD Letter to the Netherlands Within Days. It Would Be the Ninth Country.

Slovakia is set to become the next European country where Tesla owners can switch on Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Transport Minister Jozef Ráž says his ministry will send a recognition letter to the Netherlands "in the coming days", and that once it arrives, the system can be used on Slovak roads. He announced it in a video on his Facebook and Instagram accounts, reported by Slovak media on 7 and 8 October 2026, and said the ministry had negotiated directly with Tesla.

"We are just short of the goal," Ráž said.

If the letter goes out as described, Slovakia becomes the ninth European country to allow the system, following Croatia at the end of September.

What the letter does

Slovakia is not approving FSD itself. On 10 April 2026 the Dutch vehicle authority, the RDW, issued a provisional approval for FSD Supervised under Article 39 of Regulation (EU) 2018/858. That approval is national and does not travel on its own, but Article 39(5) lets another member state adopt it for its own territory by notifying the RDW in writing. The seven countries that followed the Netherlands all took that route, and it is the same mechanism Germany would need if its transport minister's push for an EU-wide decision fails.

Where Europe stands

Why the national route matters here

Slovakia already has a new law for driverless vehicles, in force from 1 December. As TeslAnt reported when it passed, it licenses operators running supervised fleets and gives a private owner nothing. The recognition letter is the instrument that covers a privately owned car with a driver at the wheel.

Slovakia has also chosen not to wait for Brussels. The EU committee that could authorise FSD across the bloc did not vote on 6 October and next meets in December, and a country that waits, as Ireland says it will, inherits that timetable. Slovakia's 5.4 million people barely move the EU-level arithmetic, where a bloc-wide authorisation needs 15 member states representing 65% of the Union's population. For Slovak owners, though, the national letter is the only route open before the committee meets again.

What has not happened yet

The letter has not been sent, and Ráž gave no date for when customers get the software. Tesla has not published a Slovak launch date or price.

The two most recent cases suggest a short gap. In Czechia, Tesla began switching the system on within days of the ministry's 21 September announcement, and only for cars with the Hardware 4 (AI4) computer, broadly those delivered from mid-2023. After Croatia's approval, Tesla said the rollout would "begin soon". Whether the Slovak launch is also limited to HW4, Tesla has not said.

Tesla has sold and serviced cars directly in Slovakia only since June, when it opened its first Center in Bratislava.

The minister's caveat

Ráž presented FSD as a safety measure, saying the available data show fewer accidents in vehicles with such systems, and listed what it does: following a route, handling junctions, parking and watching blind spots. He closed with the condition that matters most: "Just be careful — you are still the driver, and you are responsible for the car." FSD Supervised is an SAE Level 2 system; the driver must watch the road and be ready to take over at any moment.