Last Friday, the Dutch vehicle approval authority, RDW, dropped a bombshell: Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) has been granted type approval for use on public roads in the Netherlands.
Tesla says the rollout via over-the-air updates will begin within days, making the Dutch customers the first Europeans to access automated driving at a level that hasn’t been without controversy in its homeland.
Very capable co-pilot
The procedure sounds promising. Enter your Tesla, punch in your destination, sit back, and let the car handle everything from route selection to traffic lights, lane changes, cyclists darting out of nowhere, and so on.
That’s how FSD upgrades Tesla’s current Autopilot offer in Europe, at least in the Netherlands, where the American version of self-driving has now been officially allowed.
However, the RDW is careful to draw a clear distinction between what Dutch Tesla drivers are getting and what has been rolling around American roads since 2020. In the US, FSD built up a troubled reputation of traffic violations, accidents, and a string of investigations that made regulators nervous.
It all culminated in August last year, when a federal jury found Tesla 33% liable for a crash in which a self-driving Model S blew through a stop sign at a T-intersection and struck a parked car, killing one pedestrian and seriously injuring another.
In a separate hearing, the brand was also legally obliged to stop marketing terms like “Full Self Driving” without a clarifying “(Supervised)” in the name.
Different software
But the Dutch authorities state that their approval is based on a different software stack, validated over more than 18 months of testing on the RDW’s own track and on live public roads. It means that, in practice, the European version of FSD (Supervised) is less a chauffeur and more a very capable co-pilot that insists you keep your eyes on the road.
In fact, with cameras continuously monitoring the driver, the label (Supervised) is taken seriously. When a Dutch Tesla driver looks away too long, the system will issue a warning.
Ignore that warning, and FSD shuts itself down. It is so important: the driver remains legally responsible at all times. This is exactly how the RDW frames it: “This is a driver assistance system. The driver stays in charge.” So no, you can’t catch up on your binge-watching during the morning commute. At least, not yet.
Also, the package doesn’t come cheap. A one-off purchase currently costs €7,500, while a monthly subscription costs around €100. Eligible vehicles will receive the feature automatically through an OTA update, but the system only activates once you’ve paid up.
This had always been Elon Musk’s promise: that cars already on the road could benefit from these upgrades afterward. In the Dutch fleet, roughly 700,000 BEVs are currently circulating, with approximately 1 in 10 manufactured by Tesla.
If you can make it in Amsterdam…
Tesla is not alone in this space, either. BMW and Mercedes already hold approval for hands-free highway driving combined with automated lane changes, and Ford’s BlueCruise has been cleared for motorway use in Europe.
What sets Tesla apart is the ambition of the claim: FSD targets urban environments, too. These are complex environments, much more unpredictable than the relative calm of an open motorway.
It is not the first time Tesla has picked the Netherlands as a pioneering country. When the brand started exporting to Europe in 2013, it constructed a small factory in Tilburg to assemble Model S kits. It has evolved into a delivery hub.
This helps explain the brand’s relative popularity. Which European countries are set to follow remains undisclosed. But if FSD Supervised can cope with central Amsterdam without drama, the case for a broader European rollout practically writes itself.
