The Netherlands recently approved Tesla’s (TSLA) full self-driving, or FSD, software. Now the question is whether the rest of Europe follows. According to a Reuters report, the Netherlands became the first country in Europe to officially approve Tesla’s FSD software, with the Dutch vehicle authority, known as the RDW, signing off on the technology.
More importantly, the regulator has also notified the European Commission of its plans to seek EU-wide approval. Europe is one of Tesla’s most important markets, and FSD adoption there has been essentially nonexistent until now.
The RDW’s general manager for type approvals, Bernd van Nieuwenhoven, made it clear that FSD Supervised is driver-assistance software, not a fully autonomous system. The driver remains responsible, but the key distinction is that the software can steer, brake, and accelerate without the driver’s hands on the wheel.
Van Nieuwenhoven told Reuters he was confident the technology could operate safely across all Dutch roads, including Amsterdam’s notoriously tricky streets, which are shared by cars, bikes, and e-bikes.
“If it is good enough for the Netherlands, it is good enough for Europe,” he said, according to Reuters.
The report further stated:
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The Netherlands will present its findings to a relevant EU technical committee in May.
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If a majority of member states sign off and the test evidence holds up, an implementing act could follow, paving the way for EU-wide deployment.
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Meanwhile, individual EU countries can move on their own, using the Dutch approval as a reference point.
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That means the rollout could begin gaining momentum in multiple countries even before a formal bloc-wide decision.
It’s also worth noting that the European version of FSD comes with stricter driver-monitoring requirements than the U.S. version, and any significant software update must be cleared by the RDW in advance. So while the regulatory framework is tighter, the path forward is real.
Tesla’s FSD subscriber base hit nearly 1.1 million paid customers globally as of Q4, with about 70% of those being upfront purchases. Notably, Tesla is transitioning to a subscription-only model for FSD going forward.
