June 15 (Reuters) - Chris Kirkham and Mary Mans

Electric carmaker Tesla has provided safety statistics to regulators in Sweden and the Netherlands that independent road safety researchers have described as amounting to misleading marketing, as part of efforts to gain European approval for its "full self-driving" system.

A Reuters investigation published last month concluded that Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other senior company officials have increasingly relied over the past year on statistics they said proved the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance system is 10 times safer than human drivers.

But a Reuters review concluded that several of the data comparisons Tesla's statistics were based on were incorrect and that it exaggerated what it said about the safety of that feature.

Correspondence obtained by Reuters through a public records request shows that Tesla provided exaggerated safety data to some European regulators as part of its effort to gain broader approval for its Full Self-Driving system in a region where it is trying to regain market share.

Tesla contacted the Dutch Roads Authority in late 2024 to begin the approval process for the system. In a letter dated November 2024 to the authority, Tesla included a link to its safety report and stated that "increased use" of its Full Self-Driving system "increases road safety."

Tesla charges a monthly subscription fee for this system, which enables the car's self-driving feature to be activated in certain conditions, but requires the human driver to pay attention.

After more than a year of testing and discussions with Tesla, the agency approved the use of its Full Autonomous Driving system in the Netherlands in April. The agency is now seeking EU-wide approval on Tesla's behalf.

The agency declined to comment on the issues Reuters identified in Tesla's safety statistics, but said in a statement that it "does not rely on marketing claims or external statistics" in making its decisions, and that it conducts its own "tests, analyses, and investigations" of the system on public roads and test tracks. It did not specify whether it had evaluated Tesla's safety statistics in the United States.

The agency stated that Tesla "collected a large dataset" during the tests and that it "verified, tested, and audited all of this data." It did not specify what type of data Tesla collected or what it reviewed.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.