Tesla Assisted Driving, explained by Tesla: how to engage it, what the colors mean and when to take over
Tesla published an official video on Tesla Assisted Driving, the new name for FSD (Supervised) in Europe. How to engage and disengage it, how it picks speed and how it monitors the driver. In Romania the full system is still not approved.
A day after Tesla renamed FSD in Europe, the company published an official video explaining how Tesla Assisted Driving works. The system can drive on city streets and highways, through junctions, turns and roundabouts, but Tesla repeats it several times: it is not autonomous. The driver must supervise at all times and remains responsible.
How to engage and disengage it
- Enable: Controls → Assisted Driving → Tesla Assisted Driving.
- Engage: on stalkless cars, press the right scroll wheel once. On cars with stalks, pull the drive stalk down once. You can also enter a destination and tap "Start Assisted Driving", without shifting into Drive or Reverse first.
- Disengage: press the scroll wheel once, push the stalk up, press the brake or apply turning force to the wheel.
The colors matter: a gray path and steering wheel mean the system is ready, blue means it is in control. If the icon disappears, the system is unavailable.
Speed and driver monitoring
The car picks its speed based on road type, traffic, conditions and the limit. You can set a max speed with the scroll wheel and a max speed offset (a percentage of the limit), which resets to 0% every drive. Contextual max speed only appears when the offset is above 0%. In Germany, the proposal on the table for the EU vote is a 10% cap above the limit.
The cabin camera checks that your eyes are on the road. Hands must be on or near the wheel, and at high speeds they may be required on it. Ignore the warnings and the system switches off for the rest of the trip or is suspended temporarily. When it can't continue (blocked cameras, faults, unsupported roads or regions), a chime sounds and you must take over immediately.
What it means for Romania
For now, nothing changes in the car. Romania has not approved the system, so the app only shows "Tesla Assisted Driving Basic" at 490 RON a month, i.e. the familiar Autopilot features. The video shows what drivers get in countries that recognize the Dutch approval, as Slovakia is about to do.
