Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.
It has taken several years (nearly a decade) for Tesla to get from initial hype around “Full Self Driving” (FSD) and offering it as a consumer add-on when buying a Tesla vehicle to actually delivering a door-to-door supervised full self driving package. It is still something US consumers have to monitor carefully while using, so it’s not exactly full self driving, but it’s close. Now that the technology is good enough to offer more widely, Tesla is eager to get it implemented in Europe, and all of a sudden it has no patience for regulators delaying the rollout any further.
We have the interesting case this week of Tesla trying to apply peer pressure on this matter in the Netherlands. The country’s safety regulator, RDW, is reviewing FSD Supervised for potential release in the Netherlands, but it plans to do that at its own, normal pace and not be harassed or rushed into doing it quicker. If that last bit sounded odd to you, that’s because it is. Apparently, Tesla has pushed fans to put extra pressure on RDW to approve FSD….
“Tesla is trying to get its ‘FSD Supervised’ technology approved for use in the Netherlands. But Dutch regulators are telling Tesla fans to stop pressuring safety authority RDW on the matter, and that their efforts will have ‘no influence’ on the ultimate decision,” CNBC writes. “The RDW issued a statement on Monday directed at those who have been sending messages to try and get the agency to clear Tesla’s premium partially automated driving system, marketed in the US as the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) option. It’s not yet available for use in the Netherlands or Europe broadly.”
Here’s the first bit of the letter from RDW stating quite clearly what has happened and how it wants people to proceed (translated from Dutch to English by Google): “On November 22, 2025, Tesla posted a message on X about Full Self Driving Supervised (FSD Supervised) in which the RDW was mentioned. We do not share details about pending applications from manufacturers because this is market and competition sensitive information. We can, however, mention that the RDW has drawn up a schedule with Tesla in which Tesla is expected to be able to demonstrate that FSD Supervised meets the requirements in February 2026. RDW and Tesla know what efforts need to be made to make a decision on this in February. Whether the schedule will be met remains to be seen in the coming period. For the RDW, (traffic) safety is paramount.
“In the message on X, Tesla calls on Tesla drivers to thank the RDW and to express their enthusiasm about this planning to us by contacting us. We thank everyone who has already done so and would like to ask everyone not to contact us about this. It takes up unnecessary time for our customer service. Moreover, this will have no influence on whether or not the planning is met. Road safety is the RDW’s top priority: admission is only possible once the safety of the system has been convincingly demonstrated.“
Elon Musk and Tesla are hopeful that if the Netherlands approves FSD’s use, it could swiftly be approved across Europe. That would, naturally, unlock some more revenue from Tesla cars on the Old Continent and could also stimulate more sales in a region Tesla has been struggling in.
Sign up for CleanTechnica’s Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott’s in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Advertisement
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
[embedded content]
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica’s Comment Policy
Share this story!